Māori as young as 45 should receive priority access to Covid-19 vaccine, Māori medical leaders say

Māori as young as 45 should be given priority access to the Covid-19 vaccine as their risk profile is different to other ethnicities at the same age, Māori medical leaders say. 

As part of a priority group of New Zealanders aged 65 and over, Kaikohe kuia Nancy Kelleher is set to receive the Pfizer vaccine from May. 

“I want to live a little bit longer so yeah, I'm happy to have it done,” she said.

However, the National Māori Pandemic Group says vaccinations for Māori should come much earlier. It says middle-aged Māori face the same health risks as elderly Pāhekā. 

“We should be having an age-adjusted priority population and that is, essentially, Māori should be getting the vaccine from age 45,” Dr Rawiri Jansen said.

The Government said it has considered lowering the threshold for Māori and has not entirely ruled it out.

“As we start rolling out the vaccine, we'll continue to assess where we're at with, in mind to the second half of the year, which is going to capture all of Aotearoa,” Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare said.

Henare is promising more flexibility for Māori health workers, which may at times vaccinate younger groups earlier anyway.

“When they go into a household and they see our elderly, they don't just vaccinate the elderly and walk out,” he said.

“They assess the family and if they consider the family are at risk then they should be in a position to vaccinate them.”

One of the country’s largest Māori health providers, Te Hiku Hauora, told 1 NEWS that doctors face broader challenges.

The flu jab last year had a 72 per cent uptake by Māori aged 65 and over, with the rate declining sharply for younger populations.

Clinics in Kaikohe, Northland are now considering how to reach them.

Ngāpuhi Pandemic Response's Tia Ashby said one of the considerations includes outreach teams going to harder to reach areas and “looking at going around and picking these people up on a bus and bringing them in”.

“We just need to be relentless about advocating for a science-based approach to the vaccine rollout,” Jansen said.