Immunisation Advisory Centre director Dr Nikki Turner believes New Zealand's vaccine rollout position, in comparison to other OECD countries, could be an advantage. Photo / File
Immunisation Advisory Centre director Dr Nikki Turner believes New Zealand's vaccine rollout position, in comparison to other OECD countries, could be an advantage. Photo / File
Experts believe New Zealand's relatively slow vaccine rollout could be to our advantage - if we learn from those at the front of the pack.
International data reveals the percentage of New Zealanders who have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine sits at 1.08 per cent,as at March 31.
This was significantly lower than other OECD countries such as Israel (60.87 per cent), United Kingdom (46.44 per cent), France (13.58 per cent), Norway (12.90 per cent) and Germany (11.98 per cent).
However, Immunisation Advisory Centre director Dr Nikki Turner believes New Zealand could turn this to its benefit should officials learn what did and didn't work for other countries that were forced to drastically scale up their rollouts.
"The comparisons are really and wrong," Turner said.
"[New Zealand] waited until we were confident about the clinical data and did not go with emergency approval.
"What you need to watch for now is how effective New Zealand can be since its starting point and its ability to scale up over the next few months."
Immunisation Advisory Centre director Dr Nikki Turner (right) receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from clinical lead Johanna Fowler in Wellington in March. Photo / File
New Zealand began its rollout of the Pfizer vaccine about 50 days ago. Some of the aforementioned countries delivered their first vaccine more than 100 days ago.
"It's far too early to say how effective New Zealand's strategy is, it's in the early days and so far it's looking promising," she said.
Turner noted the key aspects in upscaling New Zealand's vaccine rollout would be efficient use of vaccines as they entered the country and a sufficient workforce to deliver them.
She hoped further data from the Ministry of Health about vaccine rollout efficiency would soon be available as it was upscaled.
Vaccinologist and University of Auckland associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris agreed that New Zealand's position could be advantageous if officials learned from others.
"Ideally that's what we should be able to do...[learn from] those who are doing well and who are struggling."
Vaccinologist and University of Auckland associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris. Photo / Supplied
She echoed Turner on the importance of establishing a workforce capable of delivering a vaccine rollout with a high daily output.
"Are we going to have the people we need in the right place when we're ready to really go big?"
When asked whether she believed such preparation had been done, Petousis-Harris said it was very difficult to assess given the dearth of up-to-date information on workforce and vaccine delivery.
International data indicated New Zealand's current average daily vaccination total was fewer than 1400 with roughly 55,000 people having received a dose so far.
