After a slow and highly criticised vaccine rollout for Māori adults last year, it’s now Māori children who are falling through the cracks.
Just 33 percent of Māori in the 5-11 year age group have been vaccinated so far. For Pākehā children, the rate is just over 60 percent.
Manurewa Marae in South Auckland is holding tamariki vaccination drives to lift those figures.
But Chief Executive Takutai Moana Kemp said with many schools unwilling to host the events, reaching whānau and children was a challenge.
"I know a lot of schools don't want it here, in their school grounds, because of the fear of anti-vaxxers," she said.
"And many our parents are just scared. They're fearful. And they don't get the right information."
Paediatrician Dr Danny De Lore said while most Māori adults had now been vaccinated, it was going to take an even greater level of trust for them to feel comfortable enough to consent for tamariki vaccinations.
"They have to have a bit more confidence when it comes to tamaiti that they feel responsible for," he said.
"And for adults, we had the extra incentive of some of the mandates."
Last year, the Government ignored advice from its own officials to prioritise Māori earlier in the vaccine rollout. It meant most Māori adults only became eligible for a vaccine in September.
The Government has recently poured an extra $140 million into Māori and Pacific health providers to help with the Omicron response, including lifting vaccination rates, and Dr De Lore said he could see it was doing its best.
But there was clearly a long way to go to ensure tamariki Māori were not being left behind, he said.
"The vaccination rate is a reflection of how well we have done as a country in supplying good information from trusted sources to parents and caregivers, so I think in that respect its a marker that we haven't done that well."
Associate Health Minister, Peeni Henare, said combatting misinformation was difficult.
"We always knew this was always going to be a challenge, despite that good planning, despite there being large amounts of supply, large amounts of resource, this is going to be an uphill struggle for us."
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