Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceptions of national scheduled childhood vaccines among Māori and Pacific caregivers, whānau, and healthcare professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Māori and Pacific-led vaccination strategies should be embedded in immunisation service delivery to improve uptake and immunisation experiences for whānau, according to a qualitative study. Interviews and discussions were undertaken with Māori and Pacific caregivers (n = 24) and healthcare professionals (n = 13) between November 2022 and May 2023 to understand perceptions of routine childhood vaccines through the COVID-19 pandemic. Four themes were constructed from gathered data. "We go with the norm" reflected how participants' acceptance of routine vaccines before the pandemic were promoted by social norms, health personnel and institutions. "Everything became difficult" explains how challenges were added to the daily struggles of whānau and healthcare professionals by the pandemic. "It needed to have an ethnic-specific approach" highlighted the Western-centric strategies that dominated during the initial pandemic response, that did not meet the needs of Māori and Pacific communities. "People are now finding their voice" expressed renewed agency among whānau about vaccination following pressure to receive COVID-19 vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]