First Nations and covid vaccine special priority

It appears that vaccine enthusiasm is low despite this courtesy

Noting that several provinces give First Nations priority and expanded indication for access to covid vaccines - even the freshly-released bivalents - it seems appropriate to check to see whether there are any statistics to illuminate this policy, and to measure its effectiveness.

Government policy/narrative from late 2020 is that First Nations should receive priority for vaccines:

FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said First Nations have an inherent right under treaty rights to the vaccines and to being placed on the priority list.

“With the medicine chest clause, this means First Nations people are expecting the COVID-19 vaccines to be readily available in our communities once they’re shipped out,” Cameron said Wednesday in a statement.

“We must work together with both levels of government on the prioritization, delivery and distribution of this vaccine.”

The Canadian government tracks covid cases and vaccinations very carefully in First Nations communities. Data visualizations suggest that vaccination leads to decreased covid cases.

What has the effect of special priority been on First Nations vaccination? The most accessible data for this is territory/province level data. FN-dominant provinces (Nunuvut) and territories (Yukon, NYT) have average rates of initial covid vaccination:

However, when we look at boosters, and consider the two regions of Canada with the highest proportion of First Nations residents - NYT and Nunuvut - we see a departure from the rest of the country:

Based on this indirect evidence, we may conclude that at least some First Nations groups had a more rapid cooling of vaccine enthusiasm than that of Canadians as a whole.

Which is reassuring for those of us with vaccine safety concerns.