Objective 70%: faced with the epidemic wave, Polynesia has embarked on a marathon to significantly raise the level of vaccination of a sometimes reluctant population, after the sluggish start of its injection campaign.

"Many Polynesian families have lost one of their own to the disease, it encourages them to be vaccinated", explains Daniel Ponia, in charge of vaccination at the Covid-19 platform of the Polynesian Department of Health, who came on Saturday (Sunday to Paris) to help organize this vaccination center installed in the courtyard of the presidency in Papeete.

Little incidence, little desire to be vaccinated

"I lost a friend of mine who was not vaccinated," recounts Lii Johr, who came to receive a dose on Saturday despite her phobia of injections. “We're afraid of the vaccine, we don't know what's inside. But if we think carefully, it's not just us that matters, it's global, so it is better to get stung, ”he says. Polynesia, which had closed its borders in March 2020, was not affected by the first wave of the Covid. It experienced a serious alert in October with many cases detected, but "when we received the first vaccines", early 2021, "the epidemic began to decrease", he says.

"The flip side of having a low incidence and more deaths for two months" is that when we talked about vaccines to the inhabitants of the archipelago they replied: "Why do you want to bother me with the vaccination if it's better ?

I am in good health and there are no more cases here "or" I am on an island, I am isolated, the disease is for you ", testifies Mr. Ponia.

Religious and travel impact

Since the beginning of August, however, the territory has experienced a real outbreak of cases in a very short time and "everyone rushed to the vaccination centers", says Mr. Ponia: we have gone from 29% of people with received a first dose of vaccine at the end of July, to more than 50% at the beginning of September.

But to reach the 70% bar, you must always explain, reassure, convince, because "today everyone is on the internet and social networks" where the fear of the vaccine is fueled by "rumors" about the dangerousness of the virus. .

"There is also an impact of religion" on non-vaccination with arguments such as "God will preserve us from disease, prayer is enough", also explains Mr. Ponia who claims to have "some biblical knowledge to oppose them".

"There are some that I manage to change my mind," he said.

But while the High Commissioner and the Minister of Health say they are considering establishing a health pass, it is the obligation to be vaccinated for any trip between the different islands, which could end up convincing some refractory in this archipelago which extends over an area as large as Europe, and where people travel by plane and boat.

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  • Vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • French Polynesia

  • epidemic

  • Coronavirus

  • Health