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Overview
This flier was part of the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021. It was issued jointly by Capital & Coast District Health Board, Wairarapa DHB, Hutt Valley DHB, and Regional Public Health.
The flier encourages people who have been vaccinated to take their photograph in front of the colourful rainbow banner which was present at vaccination premises, then share it on social media to encourage others to get vaccinated. Posting the image with messages of strength, positivity and safety of the vaccine, were encouraged.
Design
The design of the flier is part of the vaccine communication programme delivered under the Unite Against Covid brand in partnership with the Ministry of Health. Purple was chosen as the vaccine colour because it is the complementary colour to yellow used on all Covid messaging to date. Yellow is an alert colour, requiring immediate attention and action. Purple is a calm colour, denoting a long term plan; ‘a calm, collected response’ (Ministry of Health, 2021). The calm design also helps counter mis-/disinformation and anxiety around the vaccination programme.
Background
A new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spread quickly around the world in early 2020. It caused the serious disease of Covid-19 which WHO declared to be a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Covid-19 has since killed over 5 million people.
New Zealand experienced its first national lockdown in March-April 2020 and has tightly controlled its borders ever since. Contact tracing, hand sanitising, wearing face masks, scanning QR location codes, and now vaccination, are key strategies in the goal to live with the virus and open up the country.
Vaccines
The first viable vaccines started emerging overseas in November 2020. New Zealand chose an mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer called Pfizer-BioNTech, and began administering it on 19 February 2021, initially to vaccinators.
The population was divided into groups for the vaccination roll-out. Group 1 consisted of border and managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) workers, and was vaccinated first. Group 2 included essential workers, high-risk frontline workers, and people living in high-risk places. Group 3 included people aged 65 and over, disabled people, and people with relevant underlying health conditions. Group 4 included everyone else aged 12 and over.
The initial roll-out was considered slow, and there was increasing concern that New Zealand may not be vaccinated enough to cope with future outbreaks of Covid-19, particularly virulent new strains such as the Delta variant, which surfaced in New Zealand in August 2021. New Zealand experienced its second national level 4 lockdown because of Delta from 17-31 August 2021. With most Delta cases in Auckland, the city remained in level 4 until 21 September 2021, then level 3, with a gradual easing on 10 November 2021. Waikato and Northland have both faced periods in alert level 3, while the rest of the country has remained in level 2.
Several government and community initiatives (including the successful Vaxathon on 16 October 2021) have seen the majority of New Zealanders vaccinated.
Reference: Ministry of Health (8 March 2021, version 1). Covid-19 Vaccine: Communications and Engagement Approach (covid-19_vaccine_communications_and_engagement_approach_v1.pdf, www.health.govt.nz).