Anti-vaccine protesters in Whanganui force PM Jacinda Ardern's press conference to be rescheduled. Video / Ethan Griffiths / Bevan Conley
A Whanganui iwi leader says he was shocked when he heard how low Covid-19 vaccination rates are for Māori in the Whanganui district.
Watching last week's angry crowd in Whanganui of more than 250 mainly Māori anti-vaccination protestors, kaumatua John Maihi said the protest showed how a section of the community feels.
But he was nevertheless shocked at the low uptake of vaccination among Whanganui Māori, with only 49 per cent of eligible Māori fully vaccinated with the two required doses as of last week.
"I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a normal thing for us to actually work with the health system because of what happened when I was going to school."
An angry crowd of more than 250 protested on Wednesday, forcing the Prime Minister to cancel her visits to vaccination clinics in Whanganui and Hunterville. Photo / Moana Ellis
Maihi and other kaumātua were waiting to greet the Prime Minister at a pop-up clinic at a Whanganui city centre petrol station on Wednesday when the hostile crowd swarmed onto the forecourt and around the mobile vaccination bus. The Prime Minister ditched her visit, later saying it would have been counter-productive to turn up and the protest was blocking people from getting information and vaccinations.
Maihi said he supported people's right to protest but those who wanted to get vaccinated also had rights.
"Obviously from the crowd that's gathered, there's a big majority of our people out there who have a doubt, and it's their right to have a doubt.
Whanganui iwi leader John Maihi (second from left) waits for the Prime Minister at a pop-up clinic in Whanganui last week which was disrupted by a hostile anti-vaccination protest. Photo / Moana Ellis
"People have to have the right to decide how they want to live their lives but there are also people who want to be vaccinated who should have the right to do that also. I think we should talk with each other and make sure we're not trampling on each other's rights. We have to find a pathway to compromise."
Maihi said vaccinations were "a normal thing" in his childhood and his generation grew up with public health immunisation programmes against many serious diseases and infections. Most of the protesters were too young to understand this, he said.
"We had injection after injection to stop polio, tetanus, measles – we had all those when I was growing up and going to school. Some of them are so young, how would they know? We're the age group – we should know.
"So I'm saying to them, my own personal opinion is that we should get vaccinated and that's my right. I lined up straight away for my injection. We're doing it for the mokopunas, saving our whakapapa. Remember, your whakapapa and my whakapapa is the same, so let's get together and work on this."
