Vaccination rates in many Queensland Indigenous communities are languishing way behind the general population, leaving experts fearful about a rapid-fire spread of COVID-19 and resulting loss of life after borders reopen to interstate hotspots.
Key points:
- Director of First Peoples Health Unit said "nowhere near enough" had been done to boost vaccination rates
- An infectious disease physician said overcrowded conditions in some communities could heighten COVID spread risk
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister said misinformation "has had a profound impact"
A month out from border restrictions being eased again, some Indigenous populations have not even reached two-shot vaccination coverage for a third of residents aged 15 and older.
New federal health department statistics show double-dose protection among First Nations residents over 15 is below 35 per cent in communities on the Cassowary Coast, Mareeba, Tablelands, the Central Highlands, Burdekin, Charters Towers and Rockhampton.
That compares with Queensland as a whole, where 72.09 per cent of those aged 16 and older have received two COVID vaccine shots.
Queensland recorded one new case of COVID on Friday, in a fully vaccinated returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
But when borders reopen, the virus will spread.
The standout Queensland Aboriginal community is Pormpuraaw, on the west coast of Cape York, where about 82.9 per cent of residents over 15 have had two doses and 88.8 per cent a single jab.
Wujal Wujal, 170 kilometres north of Cairns, has also performed well with 72.2 per cent of that population double dosed.
In Cherbourg, north-west of Brisbane, nurses have been going door-to-door to encourage people to get a COVID shot. The community still has about 38 per cent of residents aged 15 and older who remain unvaccinated.
'A national and state shame'
Experts are concerned about the potential for dire consequences if SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infiltrates into a Queensland Indigenous community with low vaccination rates and high levels of chronic disease, such as diabetes.
Professor James Charles, director of Griffith University's First Peoples Health Unit, said "nowhere near enough" had been done to boost Indigenous vaccination rates and he held "great concerns" ahead of borders reopening.
"If we're opening state borders up and we've got communities left vulnerable, it could really be a catastrophe."
Professor Charles said authorities needed to be "innovative and open-minded" to combat negative misinformation, which was "scaring people".
"I think one way to counter the negative stuff is to put a lot more positive [messaging] out there from local people with trust," Professor Charles said.
"There are many aspects of this – I'm not trying to claim it's going to be an easy thing. But the truth is it's been left too late and I think we are really playing catch up.
"There needs to be a lot of resources and a lot of drive to fix this problem before it does get out of hand."
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Indigenous communities could face lockdowns
University of Queensland infectious disease physician Paul Griffin said overcrowded conditions in some First Nations communities meant a stronger risk of COVID spreading like wildfire among unvaccinated people during an outbreak.
"Those communities are particularly vulnerable," he said.
"If they remain unvaccinated, their risk of hospitalisation, intensive care and death is much higher than it would have been otherwise.
"It's much better to be vaccinated late than not at all."
Griffith University virologist Nigel McMillan said misinformation about the vaccine had been rife in Indigenous communities, peddled on social media and among anti-vaccination elements within some church-based organisations.
Professor McMillan warned regions where vaccination rates are low could face further lockdowns during inevitable COVID outbreaks.
He called on governments to do more to improve COVID inoculation in Aboriginal communities.
"We have had many successful vaccination campaigns in these communities," he said.
"The cervical cancer vaccine rates are really high in Aboriginal communities, so we know it can work."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Craig Crawford said he "doesn't think it should be a race between particular places, where we're branding particular places as failing or winning".
He said misinformation on social media "has had a profound impact" and health bodies were trying alternative approaches.
"It's around incentives in the community, it's about being able to put vaccinations centres where communities are gathering," Mr Crawford said.
"I know that in Aurukun they were vaccinating people at one AM in the morning in the streets a couple of weeks ago.
"It's about trying to get our vaccination teams where people currently are.
"They were very, very clear that the vaccination of First Nations' Queenslanders was the responsibility of the Commonwealth government and here we are as state government trying to put this together at the last minute."
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Queensland records no new local COVID-19 cases as Indigenous vaccination rates labelled 'a national and state shame' - ABC Message Stick
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