Indigenous Covid disaster would be a terrible legacy

Mobilisation of a full-scale disaster response to deal with a potential catastrophe in Indigenous communities across western NSW confirms that government knows well how vulnerable these populations have always been to the pandemic. While welcome, the deployment of teams of doctors, nurses and emergency hospital facilities to the region raises the question of why urgent action has been left to the point of crisis. On the figures announced on Tuesday, rather than being at the front of the queue for vaccination and support, Indigenous Australians, clearly among the most vulnerable members of the community, have been left behind.

Scott Morrison said that of the general population, every state now had above 25 per cent of people fully vaccinated, having received two doses of vaccine. When single doses were included, the figure was more than 50 per cent. Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt told the same press conference in Canberra on Tuesday that in Indigenous communities 30 per cent of residents had a single dose and 15 per cent were fully vaccinated.

As Paige Taylor reports on Wednesday, Indigenous Australians have been failed by the same forces of weak politics and hysterical media reporting that crashed the AstraZeneca rollout in the general population. Remote and regional clinics were organised and ready to go in March. The federal government had supplied them with AstraZeneca, which at the time was deemed suitable for everyone over 18 and did not require subzero storage conditions. Within weeks, advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation on April 8 deemed Pfizer the preferred vaccine for anyone under 50. This created a crisis in the bush.

Indigenous communities are vulnerable because they are small in number and, particularly in remote areas, can experience living and cultural conditions that are well suited to the spread of Covid-19. This includes close kinship ties, high mobility, and several families and generations living together in cramped accommodation.

Mr Wyatt said Indigenous leaders had taken special measures to protect communities, particularly across the Northern Territory. With the Covid-19 virus now loose across large parts of western NSW, government appears acutely aware of what the devastating legacy will be of getting things wrong. Senior NSW public health official Jeremy McAnulty said there were fears the virus could be circulating among Aboriginal communities in Dubbo and Walgett. He said most of the 116 cases in western NSW were among members of the Aboriginal community.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said five Australian Defence Force vaccination teams of up to 14 members were on the way. The first field hospital would be dispatched within 48 hours. Up to five trauma response teams to provide clinical support will be dispatched. The emergency response is a joint operation between the federal government, NSW Health and Emergency Management Australia. Mr Wyatt said the urgency was to ensure Indigenous Australians could “continue our history and place in Australian society”. This would have been more secure had the originally planned vaccination effort been allowed to continue. Chief medical officer Paul Kelly said analysis of 74 per cent of the 6000 Covid cases in NSW showed only 1 per cent had been fully vaccinated. Only 3 per cent of cases had received a single dose of vaccination. This means 96 per cent had not received any vaccine. No fully vaccinated person has required admission to intensive care. The army-driven response to mass vaccination being rolled out in western NSW delivers a sense of urgency that has been sorely missing.