A Covid vaccination centre in London has had to reduce its opening hours because not enough people are coming forward for the jab.
The John Scott inoculation hub in Hackney, East London, claimed ‘really slow patient uptake’ forced it to close at 2pm on three days last week.
The centre, which is open to patients from 40 GP surgeries, had been administering vaccines from 10am until 8pm every day until the sudden drop-off in appointments.
Health chiefs fear vaccine hesitancy among black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) groups is behind the poor uptake in the diverse inner London borough. Around 45 per cent of Hackney’s population is made up of people from BAME backgrounds, predominantly of black African or Caribbean ethnicity.
Numerous surveys have shown minorities – who studies have shown are up to three times as likely to die from Covid – are more reluctant to get the jabs due to a mistrust in the Government.
And a report over the weekend suggested twice as many white over-80s had been for a jab compared to elderly black Britons.
Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said today officials had been too slow to shut down anti-vaxx myths online.
Other vaccine hubs and GP practices have already began jabbing the over-60s after successful roll-outs in their areas. Health officials could move to lower risk groups if uptake remains low in Hackney — but the priority remains the over-70s, NHS staff, care home residents and workers.
NHS City and Hackney clinical commissioning group said staff have been phoning eligible patients who have not turned up to try to convince them.
The John Scott inoculation hub in Hackney, East London, claimed ‘really slow patient uptake’ forced it to close at 2pm on three days last week
Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said today officials had been too slow to shut down anti-vaxx myths online
Dame Donna told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think they (anti-vaxx rumours) have been around for a long time and I believe that we as community leaders or clinical leaders have been slow to react to them.
‘I can send you at least 10 videos on my WhatsApp, that have been circulated from since about last March with doctors, other professionals – you don’t know where they’ve come from – but all you can say about them is they’re clearly anti-vaxxers, and they claim to be protecting the BAME community from something that will harm them…
Figures showed that 48 per cent of black Britons over-80 have been vaccinated in England, up until January 27, compared to 82 per cent of white elderly Britons
The paper presented by SAGE included the results of a survey which showed a shocking 71.8 per cent of Black people said they were unlikely to get a Covid-19 vaccine if offered one
‘So we’ve got a lot of work to do as community leaders to actually ensure that people get the truth about the vaccine.’
But sources familiar with the situation in Hackney told The Times: ‘It’s not all because of people believing something or just not wanting to come forward.
‘There’s reluctance to take time off work, there’s the question of whether sites are in the right place.
‘Some people are worried about coming on public transport, especially among the groups we’re currently dealing with, because they’re the most vulnerable ones.’
A spokesman for NHS City and Hackney clinical commissioning group told the newspaper: ‘Everyone in the top four cohorts in Hackney has been invited to have their vaccination and, to encourage people to come forward, staff are phoning eligible patients to ensure that they have the opportunity to ask questions to address any concerns they have, which is helping to improve uptake.’
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahaw yesterday warned Covid could spread ‘like wildfire’ among communities where large numbers turned down the jab.
He insisted the Government is already working with social media companies to tackle disinformation and conspiracy theories but ‘we can always do more’.
His comments came after the Royal College of General Practitioners called for a high-profile national campaign to support the effort to increase coronavirus vaccine uptake in some BAME communities.
A recent survey by the college found that 94 per cent of GPs are experiencing a high uptake of the vaccine appointments being offered.
But its analysis of NHS England vaccination data shows 90.6 per cent of all recipients of coronavirus vaccines so far have been white.
The college said that ‘comparing uptake with other ethnicities shows that people of mixed ethnicity, Asian and black are, respectively, approximately only 33, 47 and 64 per cent as likely to receive the vaccine as white people’.
Asked how concerned the Government is about the takeup levels, Mr Zahawi told Sophy Ridge on Sky News: ‘Very concerned. If you look at the ONS data, vaccine acceptance in the UK is incredibly high which is very positive; 85 per cent of the adult population say they will very likely take the vaccine but the 15 per cent that are vaccine hesitant skew heavily towards BAME communities and especially Afro-Caribbean, black communities and of course other Asian and BAME communities.
‘So, the NHS, throughout the whole deployment programme, we have a standard daily equality section that we go through and make sure we are targeting both with the national message, the regional message and then the local message, the hyper-local message, engaging with those faith leaders, community leaders.’
He added: ‘If one particular community remains unvaccinated, then the virus will seek them out and it will go through that community like wildfire and that’s not something any of us wish to see which is why we are spending a lot of time and a lot of resource in this area and you’ll hear more on this from me in the coming days as well.’
It comes after a report over the weekend found white over-80s are almost twice as likely to have had the coronavirus vaccine than elderly black Britons.
Figures showed that 48 per cent of black Britons, a total of 5,012, over-80 in England had their first dose by January 27, compared to 82 per cent, 650,664, of white elderly Britons.
The data, collated by OpenSAFELY on behalf of NHS England, also revealed that 62 per cent of South Asian over-80s, 16,814, had received the Covid jab, followed by 59 per cent, 1,645, of elderly people of mixed ethnicity.
Chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank, Halima Begum explained how the findings ‘isn’t about vaccine refusal’ but shows a need to support BAME people to put their ‘trust back in our public services’.