Posted on 09 November 2021
Australia continues to provide medical support to Papua New Guinea for the fight against Covid. PNG's biggest urban centres and numerous provinces are grappling with the third wave of the pandemic, which has overwhelmed health systems.
Meanwhile, Urban clinics in Papua New Guinea’s second city Lae, have closed for an indefinite period following attacks on health workers. People opposed to the vaccine have been verbally or physically attacking health workers over false claims of state mandatory vaccinations.
Only 1.7% of PNG have been fully Covid vaccinated. This has been a cause of concern for the international community, who are watching the virus spread through an exposed population with high rates of co-morbidities and minimal access to healthcare. Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Waikato, Fraser MacDonald, looks at the cultural context of social opposition to the vaccine.