Doctors urge ethnic minority Brits to ignore Covid vaccine lies and get protected
WORRIED doctors last night urged Britain’s ethnic minorities to ignore Covid vaccine lies — as it emerged 91 per cent of jabs so far have been administered to white people.
Just five per cent of the UK’s jabs have been given to Asian people, two per cent to black people and less than one per cent to people of mixed race.
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White people, who make up 80 per cent of the population, are more than twice as likely to have accepted a vaccine than black people and three times as likely as people from a mixed background.
Data suggests ethnic minorities — up to twice as likely to die from Covid — are staying away from vaccination centres due to misinformation.
Yesterday, a junior doctor told how some ethnic minority nurses are refusing the vaccine.
Dr Michael Dawes, of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said: “It really shocked me when nurses would tell people, ‘Don’t take the vaccine’.
“What really got me is when I told one black nurse it was time to get the vaccine and she said, ‘No, my pastor said no’.
"Many people from the black community are against the vaccine because of what they’ve heard in church or seen on WhatsApp.”
The Royal College of GPs is calling on faith leaders and celebrities to help encourage ethnic groups to get protected.
Jam's slammed
COMEDIAN Jamali Maddix has sparked fury after saying on TV he would not have the jab as he did not trust the Government.
Medics said the 29-year-old’s words on Channel 4’s The Last Leg undid efforts to target ethnic minorities.
Dr Alex Lindsay tweeted the show to say it “could lead to reduced uptake”.
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Chairman Prof Martin Marshall said: “If prominent figures from BAME communities help bust myths around the vaccine and help deliver clear messages about its safety, it may very well save lives.”
Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch did so by taking part in the vaccines trials last November.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi added: “If one community remains unvaccinated, the virus will seek them out and go through that community.”
The Sun Says
THE vaccine take-up among some ethnic minorities is terrifyingly low.
Not least because they are more vulnerable to dying from Covid.
Some nurses at one hospital even warned people off the jab. A Channel 4 “comedian” intends to refuse it because he doesn’t “trust the Government”.
Such public political posturing during this pandemic is both weapons-grade stupidity and a reckless risk to life. As is scaremongering by rogue preachers.
Many community leaders are doing their best to promote the vaccines’ safety and efficacy. The Oxford jab is even likely to prevent severe cases of the worrying South African variant.
But the Government must fight back against online lies and dodgy pastors.
A greater PR blitz, involving GPs and ethnic minority celebs and public figures, must persuade everyone to get protected.
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