19 Feb 2021

Covid-19: Expert wants jab priority for Maori and Pasifika

From Morning Report, 7:13 am on 19 February 2021

Surveys show Māori and Pasifika are more worried than others about the safety of the vaccine.

National MP and former Northland GP Shane Rēti says the answer is reassuring people, and that can be as simple as sitting down and talking.

John Whaanga from the Ministry of Health says it'll be using Māori networks to reassure tangata whenua the vaccine is safe.  

Some health experts go further, and suggest Māori and Pacific people should get priority and be second in line for the vaccine after frontline workers and their families.

Collin Tukuitonga is associate professor of public health at Auckland University.