6 Dec 2019

Samoan PM dodges questions on 10-month vaccination delay

From Morning Report, 8:10 am on 6 December 2019

Samoa's Prime Minister has refused to answer questions about why the Government stopped vaccinating against measles for 10 months.

Its decision came after two babies died from a MMR vaccination mixup in July last year.

The vaccination programme only restarted in April - by which time the measles outbreak had started to take off in New Zealand.

The Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi dodged questions from our reporter Alex Perrotet at a media conference where he also spoke about just being vaccinated himself.