5 Oct 2021

Covid-19: Encouraging vaccination in gangs a challenge - Expert

From Morning Report, 8:18 am on 5 October 2021

An expert on gangs says there is a challenge to get vaccination rates up in gangs.

A positive case last month on the Hauraki Plains involved a Black Power member, and several Mongrel Mob members in South Auckland have also been infected.

Jarrod Gilbert, a sociologist at the University of Canterbury, told Morning Report gangs in general aren't likely to listen to public health authorities when it comes to vaccination.

"There's obviously an oppositional nature to the state, so anything that comes from that realm is seen as deeply suspicious.

"The other issue without question is that a lot of people in these communities aren't listening to Morning Report, they're relying on social media where misinformation is rife.

"So, there's a fair bit of conspiratorial type thinking not just within the gangs, but within those communities where the gangs exist."

Gilbert gang leaders are one key to passing on the message, and he's met several who are double vaccinated.