The 712,000 doses are belated but welcome fulfilment of NZ's commitment to more vulnerable neighbouring nations, writes Jonathan Milne. Now NZ must address its own vaccine inequities.
Analysis: When Pacific island nations distribute the vaccine to teenagers, the messaging is a little different to that in New Zealand. No, the vaccine will not change your DNA. No, it will not affect your fertility.
And does my parent or caregiver need to provide consent? "A parent or caregiver’s consent together with your consent is preferable," a draft Cook Islands FAQ document says cheerily.
This is a country that has had rates close to 100 percent for childhood jabs like MMR, and has now wholeheartedly embraced the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19.
This is supported by good information in mainstream and social media; the reality of large numbers of vulnerable elderly and those with diabetes or heart and kidney diseases, and the grim knowledge that without vaccination, they cannot safely reopen their borders to tourists.
The Cooks, Niue, Tokelau and Samoa are gearing up to roll out the Covid vaccine to more of their people, especially 12-15-year-olds, with the announcement that New Zealand will donate about 712,000 more doses to those nations and to Indonesia. There are further talks with Tonga, Fiji and Samoa to deliver thousands more Pfizer doses.
The Cook Islands archipelago's health minister Rose Vainetutai Brown says she’s grateful for the additional doses, expected to arrive in October. They will now be able to reach just over 1200 young people who weren't eligible when the vaccine was first administered. These teenagers are spread across Rarotonga, Aitutaki and a dozen more remote islands dotted across nearly 2 million square kilometres of the south Pacific.
“We know that we all need to play our part," Mahuta says. "These vaccines will provide a line of defence to countries who most need it." – Nanaia Mahuta
The doses will also be used for 103 adults who who missed their second dose in August, and would now like to complete the process.
“We really appreciate this contribution of vaccine from our good friends in New Zealand and the major difference it will make to keeping safe the young people of the region and their anau (whānau)."
New Zealand bought additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine to help maintain the pace of the domestic rollout, taking its total promised supply to 10.8 million doses. That is enough to cover the eligible populations of New Zealand and the three Realm nations.
Rate of vaccine roll-out across Oceania (doses per 100 population)
And it goes both ways – just as New Zealand can support Pacific nations in sourcing and aggregating vaccines supplies for distribution, similarly Pacific authorities and community leaders can support New Zealand with its messaging.
The bigger country has lagged on vaccine uptake, as hesitancy and misinformation have gained momentum. In stark contract to the vaccination rates back in their island nations, one-third of eligible Pacific people in New Zealand haven't received a single dose.
Thirty-six percent of New Zealand's Pacific population is fully vaccinated, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says, admitting there's a way to go in the Government's equity-focused vaccine rollout. "Those numbers are encouraging but they do show that we continue to have an equity challenge that we need to work on," he says. "There's a lot more work to do."
Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio tells Newsroom that he's challenged the New Zealand Cook Islands community to get their vaccination rates up to match the 97 percent of eligible adults that their home islands have achieved.
But some of the challenges are on a different scale, as Sio recounts.
In Tokelau (pop 1300) there was only one family who were a little reluctant to get the vaccine – so the elders got them in a room and talked them around.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Associate Health Minister Aupito William Sio announced the donation of the additional Pfizer vaccines to the Realm nations, which have a constitutional relationship with New Zealand, "to help protect the region’s precious tamariki and tamaiti".
And there are 708,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines to the Covax Facility, to support equitable access to the vaccines.
“We know that we all need to play our part," Mahuta says. "These vaccines will provide a line of defence to countries who most need it."
Covax was created as a collective solution to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines around rich and poor nations alike, but New Zealand (like many other affluent nations) has done side-deals to purchase vaccines direct from the manufacturers (Pfizer and AstraZeneca) as well as from other countries (Spain and Denmark) in order to shore up its own supplies.
So this week's contribution to Covax is overdue. The Covax allocations are to Samoa (25,000 doses) and Indonesia (683,000 doses), and are in addition to New Zealand's existing donation of 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses to Covax, announced earlier in the year.
Both countries are pleading for vaccination support. Samoa was badly hurt by low vaccination rates in the 2019 measles epidemic, that claimed more than 80 lives there. And Indonesia is struggling to get enough Covid vaccine for its vast and widely spread population.
It has delivered only 45 doses for every 100 eligible people, when the target for full vaccination is 200. Most of the vaccine has gone to double-dosing a small, affluent middle class, leaving the vast majority of the population without even a single dose.
But rates in other nations in Oceania are even worse. With fewer than two doses administered for every 100 people, Papua New Guinea has one of the worse rates in the world. The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are not much better.
“Covax exists to enable global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, ensuring widespread vaccination around the world," Mahuta says. "New Zealand is committed to supporting those efforts."
