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Professor Michael Plank has renewed interest in keeping up with New Zealand’s elimination strategy, now that he has looked to a theoretical future with COVID-19 out of control and seen the impact on Maori and Pacific Islanders.
“This just reinforces the importance of controlling the virus and eliminating it, because it just shows the devastating impact it could have if it were to become converted in these communities,” says study author Professor Michael Plank.
It found that the risk of dying from COVID-19 is 50 percent higher for Maori and Pacific Islanders than for other New Zealanders.
While those communities have been proactive in protecting themselves since the pandemic began, delivering PPE and care packages to vulnerable whanau, and establishing iwi checkpoints with the police.
Researchers say there are more entrenched issues that disproportionately affect these communities, such as the cost of health care and substandard housing.
“In the Maori health sector, we are very aware that there are Maori inequalities,” says Director of the Taupua Waiora Maori Research Center, Denise Wilson.
There are three main factors that affect the risk of death of all communities from COVID-19.
Pākehā has a larger older population, which increases the risk, but there is a greater likelihood that Maori and Pacific Island communities will have unmet health care needs.
