A group of health experts is calling for Māori children to be prioritised when the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out to younger age groups.
On Thursday Medsafe approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children. Kiwi kids under 12 will get an adapted version of the existing vaccine for the 12-plus age group. The provisional approval is for two paediatric doses given at least 21 days apart.
The exact date the rollout will begin will depend on Cabinet, which is yet to give its approval, but it's expected to be by the end of January.
In an article for the New Zealand Medical Journal, health experts Owen Sinclair, Jin Russell, Danny de Lore, Erik Andersen, Teuila Percival and Siouxsie Wiles said Māori children should be first in line because they are at a higher risk.
They say lower vaccination rates within Māori communities play into this with only 76 percent of Māori people fully vaccinated and 86 partially.
The numbers are much lower than the general population with 90 percent of eligible Kiwis fully vaccinated and 94 percent partially. It's also lower than Pacific communities with 87 percent of Pacific people fully vaccinated and 94 percent partially.
"Although early reports suggested that COVID-19 was a benign illness for children, subsequent studies have shown that children are at risk of harm from both the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 infection and the pandemic," the article said.
"Because evidence suggests that Māori children are at a higher risk of all harms, we argue that Māori children should be prioritised in any paediatric vaccination programme."
The paper also highlighted socio-economic issues that make Māori children more susceptible to catching COVID.
"According to the 2013 census, 50 percent of all tamariki Māori also live in the lowest three deciles on the New Zealand Index of Deprivation.
"This places tamariki Māori at greater risk of negative health outcomes due to social, political and environmental factors, including inequities in access to healthcare, inequities in access to well-resourced schooling, poor-quality housing and/or housing security and overcrowding and multi-generational homes."
The authors also pointed to the current outbreak which shows Māori are more impacted than other populations. Ministry of Health data shows Māori represent 45 percent of cases and 36 percent of all hospitalised cases in the delta outbreak. This is despite Māori only comprising about 16.5 percent of the total population. And as of November 28, 2021 seven of the 17 deaths from the delta variant were Māori - the highest total for any ethnic group.
The authors suggested a school-based rollout would be the best way to target Māori children, and ensure the Crown is upholding its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
"Planning for an equitable paediatric vaccine roll-out is a matter of urgency. A school-based vaccination programme would have significant benefits, such as reduced barriers to access.
"Because the majority of tamariki Māori are clustered in low-decile schools, a simple and obvious solution is to begin the roll-out at schools below, say, decile 4.
"The paediatric vaccine roll-out should also include primary healthcare vaccine sites in partnership with Māori authorities."
The report also accused the Government of making multiple mistakes during the adult rollout including "failing to design a plan specifically for Māori".
"The decision to phase the vaccination roll-out according to age and diagnosed pre-existing conditions failed to account for: the younger age structure of the Māori population, the greater burden of Māori disease (both diagnosed and undiagnosed, at younger ages), the significant barriers for Māori accessing healthcare and their justified distrust of the health system," the authors said.
Vaccines were administered to adults based on priority groups with border workers, their household contacts and the people they live with first in line.
Next in line were frontline workers and people living in high-risk settings, including healthcare workers and some priority populations.
Next up were people at a higher risk from the virus including those with underlying health conditions and older people
The last group was the general population.
