Covid-19 booster rates are flatlining, even as case numbers surge in the country's third wave.
Only 43 per cent of people over 50 have had a second booster, despite being most at risk from the virus.
There were 8428 community cases reported yesterday, the highest daily number since July, with the Ministry of Health estimating more than double that number in reality.
But the rate people are getting their second booster has barely changed in the past few weeks.
In some areas, including parts of rural Northland, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki, the rate is closer to a quarter.
Whangārei GP Geoff Cunningham says there's some misplaced complacency out there, particularly about Omicron which could still be a very serious illness.
The second booster had also become harder to access than earlier shots because fewer GP clinics and pharmacies were offering it, says Geoff.
That's because it's trickier to give with smaller numbers of people coming through - once a five-dose vial was opened, it had to be used quickly or it would go to waste.
It means people have to look around to find where it's being offered, and that can be out of their way.
Geoff says it's particularly challenging for rural communities - and health authorities should be stepping in to help.
"A little bit more advertising and also some vaccine clinics in some of these rural places is something that we need to be looking at especially as we see these Covid numbers really peaking up."
A lot of his patients were asking about the booster, he says.
"My advice is to get it. It is really important, especially with our older patients. It is certainly very protective for them, especially if they have a number of other medical conditions."
The highest rates of second booster uptake were in Maniototo and some parts of central Wellington which were in the early 80s.
Māori and Pacific patients over 40 had been able to access the second booster since November 18, but that data was not yet available.
Seventy three per cent of those eligible for a first booster had has one.
6 comments
Evidence
Posted on 14-12-2022 16:22 | By Slim Shady
Where is the evidence that a booster worked, never mind a second booster? Why has the MoH and the Government stopped supplying the data? What happened to science and evidence? Now it's just faith based pleas.
My Take...
Posted on 15-12-2022 00:39 | By morepork
I believed what we were told, had both shots and the booster, then found that we were lied to. Despite doing everything we were told to do (meticulously), I still got Covid. We were told it was incredibly contagious, but it wasn't. I had dinner with friends and hugged them, the night before I tested positive. They never got it. We were told it was devastating and possibly lethal. It wasn't, for normal people. I was over it in 10 days and had 3 days of discomfort equivalent to 'flu. They told us the vaccine was safe. The manufacturer later admitted that some tests that would normally have been done, weren't, because of pressure to get it out. We were repeatedly lied to and doctors and people who resisted, were treated shabbily. None of this inclines me to rush forward for the second booster. I'm not alone.
Not designed to stop COVID
Posted on 15-12-2022 08:28 | By fair game
... the vaccine wasn't designed to stop all transmission, it was designed to reduce the risk of serious illness / death and to reduce the impact on our public health system. Which it did when you look at NZ compared to other countries with low vaccination rates. Our low death rate and high vaccination rate is the science. The vaccinated can still, and have, caught COVID but usually a mild unpleasant brief illness. At least the majority don't end up in hospital clogging up beds.
No formal enquirey
Posted on 16-12-2022 10:50 | By an_alias
We have paid billions and the equerry will be not look into the whole affair. Just $15M of specially selected team that are PR spinners. All MPs are complicit it seems.
@fair game
Posted on 16-12-2022 15:52 | By morepork
Your post states a reasonable position and does so clearly. But the Government position was much more emphatic and never even suggested "amelioration" as a reason for getting vaccinated. I was vaxxed and maybe that's why I didn't have a hard time with it. But it's impossible to know. This government, just like our current civic adminstration, has no credibility with me now, but it wasn't always like that. I believed them until I found that I couldn't. I'm considering the second booster after looking again at the evidence, but I'm not "rushing to embrace it".
@fairgame
Posted on 21-12-2022 11:42 | By Slim Shady
I have to take issue with your “our low death rate and high vaccination rate IS the science”, and somehow proves the efficacy of the vaccine. Not so I’m afraid. One doesn’t prove the other. The current low death rate in NZ compared to other countries is down to the closed borders, and NZ not experiencing the earlier, deadlier variants. like most of the rest of the world did. There are some parts of the world that have an even lower death rate than NZ and nowhere near the vaccination rate. Why? Because they cut themselves off for even longer than NZ did. I am not arguing that the vaccine didn’t have some benefit, but the emerging evidence (not that NZ gets told about it) seems to suggest there is greatly diminishing returns on endless boosters, and better returns on natural immunity following infection.
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