I have also had people say they plan to build up immunity by catching Covid-19 as they think this is better. I can assure you catching Covid-19 is a really bad strategy for building immunity. Firstly you will clog up our health system and potentially pass it to vulnerable people.
More importantly, the Covid-19 virus gets into the cells in your body and starts taking control of them and leaves them highly damaged so even if you recover it will take a long time to heal.
If that is not bad enough, it's now been clearly shown the long-term immunity your body develops from catching Covid-19 is less than half that from the vaccine, so you may as well just get the vaccine in the first place.
I also hear people say is they can't trust science because they see that different scientists have different views and so they don't know who to believe. I think what confuses people is that as new science ideas develop as scientists put forward different theories to explain the data and there is back and forth an argument and it's all in the public domain.
When Covid-19 first arrived there were a lot of discussions and debates but as a result of this back and forth debate virtually every scientist in the world is in agreement. They agree that Covid-19 exists, that it is really dangerous, that the vaccines work and that vaccines are far and way safer than catching the virus. As a scientist myself I have never seen such complete agreement. So how do we get reliable information to you in the community in a way you can trust.
Hopefully, the fact that I'm writing this and many of you in the Far North know me is a start, but there is also a need for closer links between scientists and communities to build this trust.
Because of this, we have been working for the last three years with the Moko Foundation in Kaitaia to link science to the community. As part of this, students from Te Hiku come and work in our labs in Auckland and our scientists come to hui up north.
These initiatives have been led by Conor O'Sullivan and through this has made links with Māori and Pacific scientists who are experts in how viruses work. The result is a collaboration providing an information resource about the real science of Covid-19 called He Rauemi Mate Korona that was prepared in Te Reo by Te Aumihi Jones.
This resource can be found by searching on YouTube and is now being used across Aotearoa. This is a good example of how people in even a small community like Kaitaia can evaluate science and make an important contribution to their communities in the battle against Covid-19.
So I ask that you all get vaccinated for your own health and that of the wonderful community in Te Hiku so everyone up there can move forward and enjoy the summer without this Covid-19 cloud hanging over us.
Peter Shepherd is a Professor at the Dept of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at The University of Auckland and is a Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand- Te Aparangi. He has received his education and training at Te Hapua School, Kaitaia Intermediate, Kaitaia College, Massey University, Harvard Medical School, University of Cambridge and University College London.
