[ad_1]
As the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine in the UK enters its next phase, research has revealed that one in 10 Britons of color would refuse to receive the vaccine.
As plans to reopen the company gain momentum and the UK’s vaccination program has received much praise, one of the main challenges that has emerged is the stark disparity in vaccine uptake among Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Britons (BAME).
The YouGov study explored attitudes towards the vaccine and found that 10% of BAME people report not getting the vaccine, a figure that rises to 18% among Pakistanis and 19% among blacks. In contrast, a separate survey showed that only 6% of white Britons would refuse the vaccine.
There is also a noticeable difference between the proportion of BAME people who are still unsure of getting the vaccine, 16%, and the 8% of all people who feel the same.
Overall, 59% of BAME people said they would receive the vaccine and 14% said they had been vaccinated before (although the latter figure is lower than the 26% it is for all Britons) .
Almost half of BAME people who said they did not get the vaccine (45%) said they would refuse because of lack of information. Almost two in five said they thought it was dangerous (37%), while a quarter said they didn’t trust the science behind it or just didn’t want it (26 %).
The evidence that members of ethnic minorities are at high risk of contracting and dying from Covid compared to their white counterparts is well established. Data from last month revealed a huge disparity in vaccine uptake between high and low population areas of BAME, and ministers have been criticized for not acting more urgently on the disparities.
The government has been urged to deliver door-to-door vaccines to minority, disadvantaged and hard-to-reach ethnic communities over fears the coronavirus could become a disease of poverty.
More than 20 million people in the UK have received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. That includes nine in ten people aged 65 and over, but the NHS aims to encourage as many people from BAME groups to take up the offer.
Saliha Mahmood, who is an NHS doctor and won MasterChef in 2017, said speaking the language of these communities was imperative.
“As an NHS doctor, but also as a woman and mother in this community, I hope to use this platform to spread a positive message around immunization wherever possible,” she said. .
The NHS had offered everyone in the first four priority groups a vaccine in mid-February and is now working with the other groups.
Last week’s plans reviewed by government forcing all NHS and care staff in England to get vaccinated has been criticized as ‘grim’ and likely to increase the number of refusals to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said a mandatory Covid vaccination policy could discriminate, widen inequalities and increase bullying and harassment at the venue of work.
The latest figures show that more than a fifth of frontline health workers in London have not received the first dose of the vaccine. NHS England figures show that while 93.1% of healthcare workers in England had received their first dose on February 28 in London, the rate is only 78.7%.
The same trend is evident among nursing home workers. In London, 57.9% had been vaccinated during that period, compared to a national rate of 72.9%.
London also lags behind other regions in terms of overall vaccination rates, with just 85% of the population aged 70 and over vaccinated, well below the national rate of 97%. London’s rate for this group remains unchanged from the previous week, suggesting that the capital’s clinical commissioning groups have moved to younger age groups.
Source link
