Indigenous jab rate blamed on anti-vaxxers
Misleading comments by anti-vaxxers on social media are putting many Indigenous people off getting vaccinated.
Just 8.6 per cent of people in Western Australia's outback north are fully vaccinated, giving it the country's lowest vaccination rate.
In the southern parts of the WA outback, 13.3 per cent people are double-dosed.
The federal government does not believe it is due to supply or access issues.
"People are hesitant because of social media, what they're reading are the stories that anti-vaxxers are posting," Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt told reporters on Wednesday.
"The young ones are saying 'don't get vaccinated, it's a white man's disease'. It's not."
In virus-hit NSW, My Wyatt said 27 Indigenous people had the virus.
He added around 200 Indigenous people had contracted the disease since the start of the pandemic, but none had died.
Mr Wyatt stressed community health services were working extremely hard to reach people, including through elders and messages in Aboriginal languages.
"They're starting to change their mind," the minister said.
Indigenous people are prioritised for vaccinations, including Pfizer jabs for Aboriginal people aged between 16 and 39.
In Victoria, nearly 60 per cent of Aboriginal people had received their first jab and 22 per cent were fully immunised by the end of July.
The federal health department's daily vaccine tally does not include a breakdown of how many Indigenous Australians are immunised.
The department has been asked to provide the latest detailed vaccine figures for Aboriginal people.
