Low vaccination rates of concern
MATTHEW ROSENBERG
AS vaccine data rolls in for the backblocks of rural Southland, Jo Sanford says she feels concerned.
The Tuatapere Medical Centre practice manager is entrusted with trying to get as many in her community vaccinated as possible, but numbers remain low for much of rural Southland.
A lot of people had already made up their mind and despite her practice going the extra mile by calling patients, many would not be moved, she said.
Her concerns reflect a familiar mosaic: there is a growing divide between vaccination rates in urban and rural areas. And in Southland, a district that sprawls into some of the most remote sections of the country, the theme holds true.
‘‘People are going to care when it hits them. God help us, we don’t want that to happen [but] I think that’s the only way,’’ Ms Sanford said.
In Tuatapere, where figures come under the umbrella of Longwood Forest, almost 30% of the population remains unvaccinated.
Only 46% have received a second dose, placing the town in the bottom 13% nationally for that statistic.
Up the road in coal mining towns Ohai and Nightcaps, the numbers are even worse.
With a combined population of about 1500, onethird of the population remains unvaccinated, and uptake of 42% for the second dose places them in the bottom 7% nationally.
Ohai does not have its own medical centre, so Ms Sanford’s practice located half an hour down the road picks up a lot of the slack.
She said the low numbers there were a ‘‘huge concern’’, and getting younger people vaccinated had been a struggle.
The lowest group of vaccinated individuals was the 2029 age bracket, compared with 89% of over70s now vaccinated, she said.
‘‘I don’t know that reality has hit. OK, we had Covid down here . . . a long time ago now. It’s all been pretty much Auckland.
‘‘The general population, not just younger people, I think, are over it. Over listening to the news. It’s the same all the time.’’
Ms Sanford feels stumped. She wants people to get the vaccine, but acknowledges it is an individual choice, and people are within their rights to refuse it if they do not feel comfortable.
She hopes Southlanders can realise getting vaccinated is not just about them, it is also about protecting others.
‘‘It’s a rapid, deadly virus. We need to get people to realise that, or think about the elderly in their community, the vulnerable, the young people that can’t
Supporter . . . Bridgette Simpson, of Ohai, is confused why so many people in her small town are opposed to the vaccine.
Wayne Hebberd says he did not feel the injection going in because he was too busy talking.
get it.
‘‘By us all being vaccinated, it protects a wide group of vulnerable people.”
Ohai resident Joanne McKenzie got her first dose on Wednesday after months of deliberation and she embodies the hesitancy of her town.
Ms McKenzie, who works in the education sector, said she was not opposed to the vaccine, but had some concerns about the speed at which it was produced.
She said a major driver in ultimately getting it was her daughter’s impending wedding which she feared she would not be allowed to attend without the vaccine.
Her hand was forced and she worried about where things were headed, she said.
‘‘I just feel like if you stay unvaccinated, you’re going to be segregated from everyone else.
‘‘Vaccinated on that side, and unvaccinated on the other.’’
A couple of streets over, Bridgette Simpson holds a different view.
Ms Simpson believes there is a strong antiestablishment feeling in the town, and said people turned their nose up when they found out she was vaccinated.
The thought of extra pressure being put on the health system at the expense of patients who needed urgent attention made her feel angry, she said.
‘‘This is science, it’s got nothing to do with politics. It’s got nothing to do with anything else.
‘‘My mother had polio and had to learn to walk again.’’
Tracey WrightTawha is on a mission to vaccinate as much of the rural population as she can.
She said she was surprised to hear the statistics in Ohai were so low.
As chief executive of Nga Kete Matauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust, Ms WrightTawha heads up vaccine drives in areas where accessibility is limited, including Ohai.
Across five separate dates between August 10 and September 9, her organisation administered 644 vaccines in the small town.
‘‘What we’re becoming aware of is there’s been a bit of a dip, so we’re changing our strategy.
‘‘We’re looking at the potential to get out into rural communities and offer day clinics via mobile means, rather than being reliant on finding a venue.’’
People in adjacent Nightcaps provided a range of views, with one person who did not want to be named saying locals had an aversion to wearing masks when they came into her shop.
Peter Bayley, who once lived in Ponsonby Rd, said he had received both doses of the vaccine and believed most of the community around his age was in the same boat.
Otautaubased Rodney Heenan works in Nightcaps and believes most of his colleagues have been vaccinated.
He has not had his first dose, but said he was not opposed, just put off by some of the ‘‘stigma’’ around it.
In the town he hails from — Otautau — numbers are also low, but residents approached for comment could not figure out why.
Thirty percent of the local population remains unvaccinated, with just 44% having had their second dose — placing them in the bottom 9% nationally for that category.
Wayne Hebberd has lived in the small town for nine years and received his first dose after having a ‘‘good talk about it’’ with his doctor.
‘‘I didn’t even know I’d had it! The lady was rolling up my sleeve and I was chatting to her and then she said, ‘you’re finished’.
‘‘I didn’t feel anything, you know.’’
Neighbour Gretchen Wilson is astounded the numbers are low because everyone she knows in the town has been vaccinated, including herself.
‘‘I still haven’t grown two heads or gone magnetic,’’ she joked.
Vaccine uptake in southern metropolitan areas is considerably higher than for their rural counterparts.
In Dunedin Central, 92.5% of the population have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
In Invercargill, 81.6% have received their first dose.
Anyone over the age of 12 is eligible to get a free Covid19 vaccination, and there are at present 32 vaccination services operating across Southland.