How much vaccinators were paid & the Super Saturday vaxathon

Some forgotten history on the push to vaccinate in New Zealand including this 1 day event & it's costs

Lets take a break from masks to look back at how providers that were paid to vaccinate were paid through the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund and the push to vaccinate through 1 big day.

Direct Ministry contacts

This was made up of contracts with providers to vaccinate and could include some suppliers being paid if they administered a certain amount of doses.

Ministry funds to DHBs

DHBs were large district health boards based on regions that were removed in the health system restructure in mid 2022 in favor of locality’s instead (basically the same thing).

DHBs were paid if they submitted vaccination invoices, for instance bulk funding to train or reach segments of the community and related costs.

They could also claim for pricing per dose (PPD). PPD was the favored method that General Practitioner (GPs) used.

PPD was paid at a set rate of $36.05 per dose to participating primary care practices (as well as GPs this included pharmacies that vaccinated) during normal business hours.

If they delivered vaccinations after 8pm and before 8am on weekdays or between 5pm Friday to 8am Monday, or on public holidays the PPD was $48.72.

(Pfizer was the primary vaccine used in New Zealand (almost all doses were Pfizer in New Zealand) and 1 news organisation in early 2022 claimed the government paid $36.50 per dose of the vaccine.)

Both of these payment systems could help explain the various weekend events and sweeteners to vaccinate. Taxis could be booked for free for some people to get vaccinated. Supermarket vouchers or food parcels, sport prizes and food were the primary enticements but some vaccinating locations offered cars, fridges, smart phones and speakers too. Super Rugby had an idea to give away free rugby tickets to the fully vaccinated - if the government would pay. The government even started talks with fast food brands to see if they could vaccinate people waiting at the drive through.

Super Saturday vaxathon

An event on Saturday 16 October 2021 campaigned people to either get vaccinated or support someone to get vaccinated.

Billed as a day of celebration - yes, really - marketing was designed to capture people to have doses as summer approached. Prominent New Zealanders fronted up to the live broadcasts and events during the day.

Calling on every remaining eligible New Zealander to get their shot it was simulcast on Māori Television, TV2 (TVNZ) and TV3 (Discovery) during an 8 hour telethon-like live broadcast. It was also live streamed on the Hanaha Facebook page from midday to 8pm to appeal to a younger Māori audience.

On that note the day was also designed to push the level of vaccination uptake with Māori - in fact it was paid for out of a budget for just for that.

Costs & advertising

$960,000 was used from the Covid Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (CVIP) budget which came out of an “existing allocation to the Māori COVID-19 Vaccination Fund, which had initially received $39 million.”

The actual cost of just the Saturday 1 day event was $1,074,584.50.

This amount would include the payments to Pango Productions and Blackout Media to produce the live vaxathon.

Pango Productions who specialise in Māori non-scripted content was chosen by the Ministry of Health through:

…a selective procurement approach was utilised when contracting Pango Productions for this work.

The Ministry add the lack of following standard government procurement was because:

This approach was required due to the complexity of the production, including the need for a strong equity focus for the production, the short-timeframe to deliver, and the constraints resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at that time.

Blackout Media delivered in-show and social media content to support the vaxathon - this included the live streaming on Facebook. (They also delivered a wide range of Covid content during the pandemic for different agencies- including an online series aimed at young people to encourage vaccination.)

The day also had 11 content creators who promoted vaccination as part of Super Saturday:

… Louis Davis, Jackie Cheng, Tyla NathanWong, Kirstie Stanway, Nicole Whippy, Aya Al-chalabi, Nicole Goldsworthy, Jared Jackson, Win Velasco, Michael Fergus and Daniel Rhodes.

These content creators were engaged to make and share their own authentic vaccine-related content that was relevant to them and their followers. 

Covid-19 vaccination campaigns were paid for and by the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (DPMC) in 2021. I don’t think influencers was included in the day’s reported costs - as it would have come from the DPMC budget. An OIA refused the costs on the reason that DPMC’s contracted media company finds and pays for influencers (this is likely Clemenger BBDO who DPMC used to deliver the vaccination campaign as well as the Unite Against Covid-19 brand).

How many vaccinations did Super Saturday deliver?

The day delivered 130,000 doses with over 120 vaccination sites across the country contributing to the number.

39,025 were 1st doses and 90,977 2nd doses.

Of those 10,825 Māori received their 1st dose on the day, and 10,877 Māori received a second dose.

The overall outcome of the day was it raised the vaccination rate of people who had 1 dose by 2% (to a total of 85%), and the proportion fully vaccinated increased by 3% (to 65%). The Pacific community had 4,223 first doses and 8,093 second doses.

Regional prizes offered during the day

A Hawke’s Bay town Waipukurau was the top Māori vaccinating town with 13% of local Māori vaccinated - they won $10,550 from provider Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga.

A Canterbury town Rakaia was the top vaccinating town with 12.8% of eligible locals getting vaccinated that day - they won $15,000 of Mitre10 vouchers for Rakaia Medical Centre. 

Capital & Coast DHB was the top performing region - Fulton Hogan donated $15,000 to Te Ātiawa Waikanae Marae, $30,000 to Evolve Youth One Stop Shop and $30,000 to Partners Porirua as a prize.

3 weeks later

Those 1st doses were now due for a 2nd (myocarditis be damned) and to encourage them automated text and email reminders were sent to people.

Enticements to get that 2nd dose included:
In Auckland “…those who are vaccinated will get their names up on the big screen that normally celebrates tries at the iconic rugby field.”

In Porirua: “… a vaccination site has been set up as a tag football event tomorrow and all tag players who get vaccinated will get a voucher for free kai and can nominate a Porirua tag team to receive a koha.”

In the Bay of Plenty “…an ‘Ethkick’ event targeting ethnic communities is running at the Katikati RSA in the Bay of Plenty tomorrow, which will combine a vaccination pop-up at a soccer tournament.”

In the West Coast for the day they launched “…C’mon Coasters… including a drive-through at the Greymouth aerodrome.”

In New Plymouth they held “…a multi-ethnic family fun day with a pop-up vaccination clinic, food, face painting, and ethnic minority doctors in attendance to talk to migrants about any concerns with getting vaccinated.”
 

Vaccination incentives were pervasive through the campaigns and continued when the push to have booster doses began in 2022.