Covid-19 vaccination plan in talks: fears that distance students may be left out

Free Covid-19 and flu vaccines could roll out to all three Massey campuses July or August this year.  

ASA President Ben Austin says that there have been discussions with Massey’s crisis management team (CMT) about vaccines and says that the two free vaccinations made available on campus for all staff and students is likely to go ahead. 

“Massey was wanting to try and do free vaccinations on campus. They want to do that in our health centres and potentially in other places. They’re going to try and vaccinate staff and students at the same time,” Ben said. 

Discussions about other rules and regulations accompanying the rollout also took place, such as “putting a ‘no vaccination, no teaching’ thing in place. I’m fairly certain that’s for lecturers, and if the lecturers don’t get a vaccination, they can’t teach in class, unless there is a medical reason they can’t. It was something mentioned that they might want to implement.”  

However, Ben didn’t believe it was as likely this measure would be implemented, saying “I’m not too sure if that is going to go ahead. I have a feeling that’s not going to go ahead as harshly as they planned. It was pushed to the backburner quite quickly and the focus was brought quickly back to the vaccination rollout on campus.”  

Ben understands that the free vaccinations are intended to cover all students, including international students, but says there was some concern about how distance students would be able to access vaccines. “That was more of a ‘we’ll wait until we get there’ kind of discussion but it should be a ‘now’ discussion to get those plans in place. But we will be waiting until July or August until we actually get the vaccinations in the third phase of the rollout I think.” Cultural or religious reasons for not getting a vaccination were not covered in the meeting with the CMT.  

Massey at Distance Co-president Jax Watt was “disappointed” with Massey’s answer to distance students. 

“I was at the HSS committee meeting where this was discussed and raised concerns about the efficacy of access regarding distance students who did not have access to a Massey campus. Amy outlined that it was currently not being feasible to roll out something that encompassed all distance students right now, especially international distance students,” she said. 

According to a Massey spokesperson, the University is in discussions about the nationwide rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine but there are no confirmed plans at this stage. “We will be communicating with staff and students as plans are developed and look forward to supporting the rollout when that time comes. Massey students on placement within health facilities, such as nursing students, may be offered the vaccine in advance alongside the other frontline healthcare workforce staff,” Massey says.