Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 should be everyone’s top priority when they’re offered it, says the Council of
Medical Colleges (CMC), which represents over 9000 medical practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dr John Bonning, an Emergency Medicine physician and Chair of the CMC says all New Zealanders can be proud of the role
they’ve played in protecting the country against COVID-19 over the past year.
“It’s critically important we maintain our collective approach when the vaccine becomes widely available from the middle
of this year.
“Any vaccine’s strength is in numbers and the more of us who get vaccinated, the stronger and safer we’ll all be.”
More than 172,500 border, managed isolation and quarantine workers and the people they live with, as well as a good
number of health care workers, especially those in the front line have already received their first (and many their
second) dose of the vaccine.
“This is a good start and we need to keep this momentum going,” says Dr Bonning. “The CMC is encouraging everyone
working in the health sector to get vaccinated to protect their whānau, patients, colleagues, and our health system.”
In terms of vaccine safety, Dr Bonning says stringent New Zealand approval processes have been maintained by Medsafe,
the country’s medicines and medical devices safety authority.
To date 1.04 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered to people in over one hundred and eighty countries.
“As Kiwis, we know the value of teamwork and what it can deliver.
“We’ve also seen the havoc wrought by Covid-19 globally. Vaccinating New Zealanders is a big part of our pandemic
recovery plan.”