Health

Vaccine hesitancy: what is behind the fears circulating in BAME communities?


There are now more than 6 million people in the UK who have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as efforts to speed up the inoculations process continue to intensify. But as more of those in the highest risk age groups get their jabs, there are growing concerns in government about the rates of vaccine hesitancy in some black and minority ethnic communities.

The Guardian’s communities correspondent Nazia Parveen tells Rachel Humphreys that, despite evidence that those in minority groups were hit hardest by the first wave of Covid-19 last year, they are among the least likely to take up the offer of a vaccine. Misinformation circulating on social media including false rumours that the vaccine may contain alcohol or pork have spread widely and are proving difficult to counter. But perhaps more challengingly, there are structural, cultural and language barriers to overcome too.

Annabel Sowemimo, a community sexual and reproductive health doctor, describes how entrenched health inequalities are inseparable from the data surrounding vaccine hesitancy. She looks back at historical scandals across the world of drugs being trialled on black communities without proper consent and the long-term damaging effect this has had on trust.





A medic prepares the arm of a patient before an injection





Photograph: PA

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