Australia’s pandemic experience offers a potential model for Indigenous health care --experts say EY

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Sun, 2021-04-11 20:22 — mike kraft

Australia made a plan to protect Indigenous elders from covid-19. It worked. The pandemic ravaged first-nation communities in many parts of the world. Australia bucked the trend. Rachel Pannett Washington Post

SYDNEY — From Alaska to the Amazon, Indigenous people are more likely to get sick with or die of covid-19, as the pandemic magnifies deep-rooted health and socioeconomic inequities.

That is not the case in Australia.

Not only have Indigenous Australians recorded far fewer infections per capita than their global counterparts, they are six times less likely than the wider Australian population to contract the coronavirus, government data shows.

There have been no cases in remote communities, and not a single Aboriginal elder has died. Of the 149 cases involving Indigenous people since the start of the pandemic nationwide, few were serious enough to require hospitalization. By contrast, covid-19 is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other group in the United States.

Health experts say Australia’s pandemic experience offers a potential model for Indigenous health care — after a history of discrimination and neglect that typically led to poor health outcomes.

Australia has almost eliminated coronavirus — by putting faith in science

The vaccine rollout is also proceeding more smoothly in many Indigenous communities than elsewhere in Australia, where some clinics are complaining of empty vaccine fridges. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders are being prioritized for vaccinations because of their higher risk of developing serious illness if infected.

On the first day of the vaccine rollout in Sydney, one Aboriginal clinic booked all of its appointments in an hour, according to Aboriginal health officials. In the remote Australian-controlled islands of the Torres Strait — near Papua New Guinea, which is battling an outbreak — over 80 percent of adults have been vaccinated, officials said.

“This is a most amazing response to the pandemic from a community that is so marginalized,” said Fiona Stanley, an Australian epidemiologist specializing in public health. “This is probably the best evidence we have that if you put Aboriginal people in charge, then you get better outcomes.” ...

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