What Black people needed was reassurance delivered by individuals who they respected and could trust. For structural and political reasons, including the lack of Black scientists at the highest levels of decision-making, this did not happen and so the hesitancy has persisted.
Addressing vaccine hesitancy among Black communities is as complex as fighting the pandemic. That’s because just as the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves, so does hesitancy.
In the first wave of the pandemic, when the virus was shown to be affecting certain ethnic groups disproportionately, one solution proposed by the medical profession was to start the vaccine roll out with the most vulnerable communities, including people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.
This caused concern among these communities, because they are not normally at the front of the queue when it comes to the best medical treatments, particularly those in lower socioeconomic classes. Some people began to speculate that it was because it was an experimental vaccine and Black people were being used as guinea pigs.
LONDON: London hospitals will run out of beds within weeks if the spread of coronavirus is not dramatically reduced, the capital’s mayor has warned as he declared a “major.
Hospitals will run out of beds within weeks : London declares major incident as Covid-19 spirals out of control The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared a major incident in the capital, saying hospitals will run out of beds within weeks as Covid-19 cases soar. Mr Khan said Covid-19 cases were “out of control” and implored Londoners to stay at home “unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave” in order to save lives and protect the NHS. He said that in some parts of the capital one in 20 people has coronavirus – compared to the England average of one in 50 – while there are 35 per cent more people in hospital with Covid-19 than at the peak of the pandemic in April.
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Video report by ITV News Correspondent John Ray
The UK has reported its deadliest day of the pandemic so far after the government confirmed a further 1,325 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday.
The previous deadliest day of the pandemic was on April 21 during the peak of the first wave when 1,224 people died from coronavirus.
It brings the UK death toll to 79,833.There were also 68,053 new cases confirmed on Friday beating the previous record set on Wednesday by almost 6,000 cases.
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The death figures continue to be affected by a lag in the publication of recent data and will contain some deaths that took place over the Christmas and New Year period that have only just been reported.