ERNIE DINGO KICKS OFF HIS ROEBOURNE TOUR AT THE HISTORIC 50 CENT HALL

Ernie Dingo said hello to locals at the 50c Hall (Photo: Camilo Blanco)

ERNIE Dingo dropped into ‘50 cent hall’ in Roebourne today as part of a new campaign to boost vaccination rates in remote communities in WA.

Heartened at the number of people attending the COVID clinic at PCYC (Police and Community Youth Centres), the Australian TV personality says the message is getting in.

But there was still resistance in some Indigenous communities, the Going Places star said after a tour of Port Hedland and inland communities.

“A lot of people are just afraid of needles,” he told Ngaarda Media. “Many people are elderly and already sick with pre-existing medical conditions.”

He said social media did not help, it only increased the confusion and fear about vaccines, the Great Outdoors host having received thousands of threats from anti-vaxxers.

‘Vax the Outback’ began in Perth two weeks ago, the project delivered by Aboriginal Story Agency BushTV and funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

Dingo brings a face-to-face approach to his travel brief and says conversations held in ‘yarning circles’ or at barbecue brekkies have gone a long way to removing the anxiety over being vaccinated against COVID.

His visit today comes as federal authorities prepare for the new Omicron COVID described by the  World Health Organisation as, “a variant of concern”.

Written by Camilo Amalfi