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Today star Brooke Boney's powerful Covid plea: 'Not mucking around'
Today show entertainment reporter and proud Gamilaroi and Gomeroi woman, Brooke Boney, has delivered a powerful message to Indigenous Australians amid the ongoing Covid pandemic.
On Tuesday morning, the 34-year-old reiterated just how dangerous the virus can be and urged Aboriginal community members to get vaccinated as soon as practicable.
Brooke's Covid plea
Brooke began her monologue by expressing concern over the spread of the virus to regional and remote areas from more populated cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.
"I've been really concerned about the spread of Covid through regional and remote areas of New South Wales and Victoria, particularly those places with very high numbers of Aboriginal people," she said.
"So I just wanted to send a shout-out to those people in those regions who are affected because Aboriginal people have more underlying health conditions than the rest of Australia."
Brooke went on to talk about the importance of the Covid vaccine to protect vulnerable individuals and communities as a whole.
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"This is a message to you if you're one of the people in these communities. If someone you love catches Covid it can be really, really dangerous. We're not mucking around, it could mean that they get really sick or worse, so it's really important that you take the vaccines that are available to you as recommended by your doctors."
Brooke also discouraged viewers from turning to unverified sources on social media platforms for news and information on Covid.
"This is not the time to be looking at information from 'unknown sources' on Facebook.
"We are absolutely not mucking around anymore, you need to do this to protect our Elders and our babies, and we cannot risk their health."
Today co-host Ally Langdon, who had been listening on with Karl Stefanovic at the desk, nodded in agreement as Brooke pointed out that some regional communities don't have access to GP clinics let alone intensive care hospital beds.
"And 18 months on, we've said it from the start, vulnerable communities need to be inoculated first," Ally said.
"Thank you and well said Brookey," added Karl.
'Significant concern' for remote town
The remote northwest NSW town of Goodooga is now of significant concern to authorities after recording six new cases of Covid over the weekend, bringing the total to eight.
The town of about 250 mostly Indigenous people, north of Brewarrina near the NSW-Queensland border, was swabbed en masse late last week after the first cases were reported.
NSW Health data shows that as of last week, vaccination rates in the town were lower than 10 per cent. However, authorities say there has since been a local vaccination drive.
The town, like all of regional NSW, is in lockdown until at least August 28. Sydney is in lockdown until at least late September.
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