A BRADFORD organisation is running a campaign alongside the district s different faith communities to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The Volunteering Interfaith Programme (VIP) is joining leaders from Bradford s Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities, as the vaccine - which has now been taken by over two million people in the UK - continues to be rolled out. VIP founder, Dr Javed Bashir, says the campaign comes amid some groups raising questions over the ethics of vaccination, and will involve faith leaders talking to members of the community and producing video messages encouraging people to take it. The vaccine has been widely cheered as marking the beginning of the end of the pandemic. With vaccines on the horizon, faith leaders could play a crucial role in promoting their use , Dr Bashir said.
Late last year, polling emerged that revealed some British, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities were less likely to take up a Covid-19 vaccination. The research by Queen Mary University suggests only 39 per cent of BAME Londoners are likely to take the vaccine, compared with 70 per cent of white Londoners. Another poll by the Royal Society for Public Health, conducted at a national level, found those numbers were 57 per cent for BAME people and 79 per cent of white people in the UK. It may at first seem confusing that communities that have disproportionately suffered from Covid-19 and seen a higher rate of deaths are less likely to want to be vaccinated against the virus, but a closer look shows the reasons for both issues are rooted in the UK’s racialised health inequalities. The government is relying on a set of tools that have failed to address these inequalities in other aspects of healthcare, so why would they suddenly work for coronavirus?
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Coronavirus Vaccine: Is it Halal or not?
asad mirza @Marginalia Jan 10, 2021, 17:46 IST
It is not only the Muslims, even Hindus and Jews have raised questions about the use of the Covid-19 vaccine, due to prohibited substances in its composition.
Even before the Covid-19 vaccination process starts in India. The Indian Muslims have courted another controversy. The question is whether they’ll be amenable to get vaccinated or not, as there are reports that the proposed vaccines may not be halal as per the Islamic dietary laws.
Muslims, Jews and even Hindus have questioned the composition of the proposed vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Even as India is scrambling to start the coronavirus vaccination drive, Muslims have raised concern over the use of pork products forbidden in Islam and Judaism, while the Hindus have questioned the inclusion of cow blood in the vaccine.