A second booster – or fourth dose – is now available to anyone over 50, as well as health, elderly care and disability workers over the age of 30.
The Ministry of Health recommended that people stay abreast of vaccinations, but significantly fewer people received their first booster dose than the first two samples.
Only 72.9 percent of the total qualifying population received a first booster shot, which is equivalent to 987,833 qualifying people who did not receive it.
A number of qualifying people in the streets of Wellington wanted a fourth dose but did not know it was available.
One man said he would “probably have expected to know” before being asked by RNZ because the announcement was made hours in advance.
Another man said that “it should always be worrying” that a public health measure apparently did not reach its intended audience.
Similarly, Rotorua-based GP Cate Mills said she knew an announcement was imminent, but did not know it happened until RNZ contacted her.
She could now have patients ask for it today and had previously inquired.
Rotorua is in the Lakes District Health Council area, where just over 67 percent of the qualifying people had the first booster shot.
This is the second weakest rate among DHBs for boosters, slightly above its neighbor Bay of Plenty (other DHBs have weaker first and second dose rates).
With more than a quarter of people turning up nationally for the first two Covid-19 vaccinations not returning for a third, Mills expected those eligible to be even less interested in a fourth dose .
“It might be just 50 percent,” she said.
Call for a shorter waiting time
Nick Wilson, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago, expected more than half of those eligible for the fourth dose to take it.
“I would hope it would be much higher.”
He wanted people to be vaccinated to keep them out of the hospital and help relieve the pressure on the health system.
But he said many may only be able to get the fourth dose once the winter is over – and note that people were not supposed to get the sting within three months of having Covid-19 and have to wait six months after their last shot. .
Wilson said the six-month wait should be shortened “maybe even to three or four months.”
I have suggested decisions around what can wait until officials see what the actual recording of the fourth dose was like.
Dr Api Talemaitoga, chairman of Pacific GP Network, wanted to be optimistic but eventually thought there was Covid-19 fatigue and convincing people to get a fourth dose would be a “difficult sell”.
“People are tired of hearing about the Covid messages,” he said.
“A lot of people have had Covid in Aotearoa and might think ‘that’s enough – I don’t need to get the booster shot because I already had Covid’.”
Talemaitoga said officials could not leave it to medical professionals to get the message out because they were already exhausted.
He said vaccination should be clearly available and accessible.
“I know it’s going to be difficult, but that does not mean we should not try to give so much of ourselves another boost with another dose.”
A Health Ministry spokesman said most of those in the fourth dose group would be on their six-month wait in July and August.
The ministry planned to run an advertising campaign and to contact people directly when they are eligible.
Ceshid-19 response minister Ayesha Verrall said the criteria for who could get a boost would still be reviewed.
She said the message remains for young and old to be vaccinated when they can protect themselves and others.