PACIFIC Islander church leaders must do more to promote vaccination among their communities – many of whom are in Sydney’s hardest hit pandemic zones, including Cumberland, to combat high rates of vaccination hesitancy.
Former Homebush Uniting Church Minister, Alimoni Taumoepeau, who is from Tonga, warns that Pacific Islander communities were less likely to heed government-sponsored campaigns to promote Covid-19 vaccinations and instead were being swayed by conspiracy theories.
“Church leaders can play a really powerful role in promoting the importance of vaccination, they are able to breakthrough to a community that is often in the thrall of conspiracy theories,” Rev Taumoepeau said.
“Pacific Islanders are broadly more conservative in their religious beliefs and they are listening to conspiracy theories that link Covid-19-initiatives to biblical references to end times in which government seeks to increase control over people.”
Rev Taumoepeau works with culturally and linguistically diverse communities as part of Uniting’s Mission and Education unit.
The Moderator of the Uniting Church (NSW & ACT), Rev Simon Hansford, has also appealed to church leaders to do what they can to overcome Covid-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
“There is concern, especially in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, that many people are being misled, or misinformed, about vaccination and Covid-19,” he said.
He has appealed for church leaders to share on social media when they receive their vaccination.
When Rev Taumoepeau received his second AstraZeneca jab two weeks ago, he posted a message in Tongan on social media based on John 10:10.
“This verse talks about the thief that comes to steal and kill and destroy … this pandemic is stealing and killing and destroying and the vaccine is a key to our freedom from it,” he said.
