Pasifika elders step up for Covid jab
Waikato’s Pasifika population should not decline the Covid-19 vaccination based on ‘‘assumptions or hysteria’’, a social service leader says.
K’aute Pasifika Trust chief executive Rachel Karalus wants to see Waikato’s 20,000-strong Pasifika population vaccinated against the virus.
The trust has started vaccinating people in Group 2 this week – including Ma¯ ori and Pacific people 65 years and older and their wha¯ nau, frontline workers, and people with underlying health conditions and their wha¯ nau.
Karalus said an ‘‘underbelly of mistrust’’ about the vaccine existed in the Pasifika community.
‘‘There’s some hesitation and reluctance, and there has potentially been issues about access to quality information around the vaccination and the safety of it,’’ Karalus told
Sending mass emails did not always work for families who aren’t connected to the internet or struggle with language barriers.
The trust is vaccinating people at its Hamilton office on Victoria St on Saturday afternoon.
Karalus said the best way people could protect themselves, their aiga or wha¯ nau from Covid-19 was to get vaccinated.
‘‘If you are not getting the vaccine, make sure you are making that choice as an informed choice, with all the access to high quality information that is coming out of the Ministry of Health and the district health board.
‘‘Don’t make a choice not to have the vaccination based on assumption, hysteria or doomsday thinking.’’
Despite her grandchildren asking ‘‘Why Nan?’’, Ere Ford was determined to roll up her sleeve for the Covid-19 vaccination.
The 68-year-old hopes she can set an example for her family and the wider Cook Island community by immunising against the virus.
Ford was one of the first to get the jab at K’aute Pasifika Trust’s clinic.
She has 19 grandchildren and about 16 great-grandchildren, but there’s one great-grandson in Australia with an upcoming 1st birthday who she can’t wait to see.
‘‘I am crossing my fingers and praying, praying, praying that I can get there.’’
Travelling to Australia was a big motivation for Ford to get the vaccination and she wanted to safeguard herself against the virus, she told
Some of her grandchildren were uncertain about how safe the vaccine was. But after listening to the news, reading the Ministry of Health guidelines and attending a public information session with Dr Api Talemaitoga, she knew the vaccine was safe, she said.
‘‘Get the right information, that’s what I was saying to my granddaughter.
‘‘Don’t read all the rubbish on Facebook, because if you get the right information you are informed properly.’’
Faataape Ale, 58, is also looking forward to the vaccine, despite false rumours within the Samoan community that the vaccine will make older people sick.
‘‘It’s important for me to get the vaccine because I have my children and grandchildren around me, and I need to travel soon.’’
About 33 per cent of Waikato’s Pasifika over-65 population had already received the vaccine, Waikato DHB director of Pacific Health Tamati Peni said.
‘‘I am really pleased because our Pacific elders are really stepping up in this vaccination campaign.’’
According to the Ministry of Health,
33,241 Pacific people have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 17,102 have received their second dose nationwide.
As the vaccine is administered to groups 3 and 4 throughout the year, vaccination clinics may go mobile – featuring in churches or community halls, Peni said.
The K’aute Pasifika Covid-19 vaccination centre, at 960 Victoria St, will be open on Saturday, June 12, from noon to 4pm.
Anyone in group 2 who wants to get vaccinated can call K’aute Pasifika on 07
834 1482.