Leaders in the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg have made a desperate plea for locals to get vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the town is facing its "last chance" to avoid a potential lockdown.
Key points:
- A doctor says it has been particularly hard to vaccinate residents younger than 60 in the town
- The town's low rates are of particular concern because of Queensland's plan to reopen in December
- Health services are doing all they can to try and combat misinformation being spread in the community
About 32 per cent of Cherbourg residents have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine and 24.9 per cent are fully vaccinated, compared to 72.47 per cent and 56.9 per cent of eligible Queenslanders.
The nearby regional centres of Bundaberg and Toowoomba each have fully vaccinated rates higher than 57 per cent.
The recent death of prominent elder and vaccine advocate Bevan Costello prompted a flood of misinformation online and in the community, forcing his son to speak out.
"Dad had a history of chronic illness," Leighton Costello said.
"Leading up to his death he was ill for a few weeks and passed away from … a heart attack.
"My father did not pass away from the vaccination.
"Dad … wanted everyone to get vaccinated."
Mayor Elvie Sandow said the community's low vaccination rate was a major concern after Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the state's roadmap to reopening this week.
The plan will see fully vaccinated domestic travellers from COVID hotspots allowed into the state without quarantining from December 17.
"People have got the different views on it, but I think at the end of the day we want to keep our community and our families safe," Cr Sandow said.
"We need for you guys to have the vaccination, please.
"Come on this journey with us."
'If you want freedom … get vaccinated'
Community leaders said they were bracing for the possibility of another lockdown to protect residents if Cherbourg's vaccination rate did not improve.
The community endured about three months of stay-at-home orders last year as part of a health directive under federal biosecurity legislation.
"We've been speaking to government reps and they're saying things like lockdowns will be put in place," councillor Bronwyn Murray said.
"We don't want that for our community — we already had restrictions in the past, in the olden days.
"So we want [community members] to come forward to get the vaccination done, to protect yourself and to protect your families.
"You imagine if COVID got into our community, all hell and chaos would break loose here."
Mr Costello said time could be running out.
"This is the last chance for a lot of people out there to get vaccinated," he said.
"There are 849 people who are eligible to get the vaccine — only 206 have it.
"That's less than a quarter, so as a community we're low.
"We need it higher."
Deputy Mayor Tom Langton said he and the other councillors were vaccinated and wanted to demonstrate that the COVID vaccines were safe and effective.
"We haven't got side-effects," he said.
"COVID is here to stay, but if you want freedom, we've all got to get vaccinated."
Struggle to reach younger residents
Darling Downs Hospital (DDH) and Health Service doctor Katie Panaretto said it had been particularly difficult to get Cherbourg residents younger than 60 vaccinated.
"It's been a struggle," she said.
"We've already had two clinics in Cherbourg, at the town hall.
"We were there for three days the first time and then a week the second time and we vaccinated many people from surrounding towns."
Dr Panaretto said most of those who had received the vaccine at the service's pop-up clinics were non-Indigenous.
"It's probably reasonable ring-fencing around Cherbourg in terms of uptake, but we're still struggling to reach the young people and in surrounding towns like Murgon, Wondai, Kingaroy," she said.
Loading...The service is planning to begin doorknocking next week to try to reach more residents.
Dr Panaretto said misinformation about the COVID vaccine was still rife online and that the DDH Aboriginal health team was trying to combat that on social media.
"I think we haven't properly communicated with [young people] maybe," she said.
"Young people haven't been a priority in terms of vaccine rollout — we clearly wanted to vaccinate the older people first.
"We've really just started trying to reach them in the last couple of weeks."