PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

One of the reasons for this was the substantial publicity campaign undertaken by the
Department. There were articles in newspapers and a feature in the New Zealand
Woman’s Weekly expounding the community benefits of the immunisation. 86 The
newspapers had also recently featured the political debates and manoeuvrings over
funding for the immunisation programme which had also brought the proposed
campaign to the notice of the public. In addition, as part of the Department’s
publicity campaign, a film was screened on television by the New Zealand
Broadcasting Company in the early evening of 11 August called The Case against
Rubella. 87 The Health Department found that whilst ‘prepared statements were
published infrequently, the creation of a “newsy” situation allowed easy dissemination
of information to the public’. 88 For instance, the televising of the departure of
immunisation teams by amphibian aircraft to some of the outlying coastal islands, on
the day before the school campaign commenced, ‘created a favourable response and a
great deal of public interest’. 89
It was likely that this publicity made parents more aware of the rubella vaccine and
the impending school campaign and may have induced parents to give their
permission. In the Auckland District, of 29,919 children eligible, 25,254 were
immunised against rubella. 90 The Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Auckland, T.
H. Bierre, observed that the ‘convenience of vaccination at school appealed to the
public, and is in New Zealand now a widely accepted procedure, following on earlier
similar programmes’. 91 School-based campaigns were always popular with parents
because of the ease with which their children could be immunised - all they had to do
was sign a consent form.
Nonetheless, preschoolers aged four and adult women were also part of the
programme and the Department found that uptake for both these groups was ‘much
less than anticipated’. 92 It was discovered that vaccine usage had only been 30
86
B. Young, ‘Blitzkrieg in the war against Measles’ New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, 13 July 1970,
p.22, Evening Post (EP), 27 July 1970, EP, 29 July 1970.
87
‘Rubella Progress Report, 31 July 1970, H1 144/18/1 36182, ANZ, Wellington.
88
T. H. Bierre, ‘Immunisation of School Children with Rubella Vaccine’, NZMJ, 74, 8, 1971, p.9.
89
ibid.
90
ibid.
91
ibid., p.11.
92
‘Rubella Vaccine Usage’ 2 March 1971, H1 144/18/1 36182 ANZ, Wellington.
182