sbs– The federal health department has scrambled to update online COVID-19 translations around vaccines after some were discovered to be months out of date.
With changes to vaccine eligibility moving fast, health professionals recently discovered advice on the department’s website was wrong in a number of languages when they checked it themselves.
As first reported by the ABC, culturally and linguistically diverse Australians were still being told AstraZeneca was the preferred vaccine for over 50s, despite that advice being updated in June to reflect the risk posed by extremely rare blood clotting disorders.
Areas in western and southwestern Sydney that have high numbers of CALD residents have been at the centre of New South Wales’ COVID-19 crisis.
Federal government data on regional vaccination rates to August released last week showed vaccination rates in Western Sydney were among the lowest in NSW.
SydWest Multicultural Services CEO Elfa Moraitakis said the health department’s delay in updating its online information had frustrated community leaders trying to help people make tough decisions.
“It is unjust to our diverse communities in Western Sydney not to have access to accurate information,” she told SBS News.
“[And some] people wonder why the community feels alienated and isolated from the rest of the city?”
Quinn On, a pharmacist in Cabramatta in Sydney’s southwest, also said the mixed messaging had caused confusion and disruption.
“Luckily I had the Chinese checked against the English. They weren’t updated. The Vietnamese … versions weren’t updated [either],” he told SBS News.
“Little things like that, I printed a hundred, and then I had to throw them out.”
Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck on Thursday conceded the government’s information should have been updated quicker.
“It should have been sooner, it should not have taken eight weeks,” he told Senate Question Time.
“Communication is extremely important and this information should have been updated sooner.”
Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler described the delay as “shocking”.
“There has got to be more targeted information of a high quality,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck on Thursday conceded the government’s information should have been updated quicker.
“It should have been sooner, it should not have taken eight weeks,” he told Senate Question Time.
“Communication is extremely important and this information should have been updated sooner.”
Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler described the delay as “shocking”.
“There has got to be more targeted information of a high quality,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Health Minister Greg Hunt also defended the government’s response when questioned about the delay in Question Time in the House of Representatives.
“We are working with social media, television, we are working with advertising, we are working on multiple different fronts to make sure messages are provided to the culturally and linguistically diverse communities,” he said.
“These are updated continuously, we work, in particular with communities to make sure that the language used is accurate.”
Translation errors were also uncovered in official state and federal government messaging last year.
