An American medical specialist says Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy is a significant hurdle for the US Pacific community.
Los Angeles based endocrinologist, Dr Raynald Samoa, is part of the US National Pacific Islander Covid-19 Response team.
He said covid continues to hit Pacific peoples disproportionately, up to five times worse than those of white Americans in some outbreaks.
Research by his team shows a number of factors behind the hesitancy.
"When we looked at education and we looked at income we noticed very clearly that the lower your income the more suspicious you are going to be of the vaccine, the more hesitant you are going to be to receive the vaccine.
And the higher your educational attainment the more likely you are going to receive the vaccine," he said.
Dr Raynald Samoa Photo: City of Hope
Dr Samoa said Pacific peoples in the US are generally poor educated and not well paid.
To counter vaccine hesitancy the medical fraternity is relying on the support of community organisations.
Dr Samoa said these community groups help them infiltrate those circles they are not currently part of.
"A lot of our influencers now come from social media, they come from non traditional sources of information, and I just don't just have the bandwidth as a health provider to do that, but community based organisations do that.
So we partner with them to get the word out," he said.
