A number of British Asian celebrities have contributed to a vaccine awareness video co-ordinated by Citizen Khan creator and Good Morning Britain presenter Adil Ray. The aim of the video is to dispel vaccination myths for those from ethnic minority communities.
Adil Ray made the video amid fake news about the vaccine, particularly in the South Asian community which has led to concerns about uptake.
Research indicates that groups that frequently encounter discrimination in their everyday lives have a larger degree of hesitancy towards vaccines. For example, black and minority ethnic parents in England are three times more hesitant than their white counterparts towards COVID-19 vaccine for their children and themselves (Bell et al., 2020).
According to the Office of National Statistics ‘rates of death involving COVID-19 remain greater for most ethnic minority groups, and most notably so for people of Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic background.’ So, it is vital that people from these ethnic minority groups receive the Covid-19 vaccine. The only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is through vaccination.
The Vaccine explained in Five South Asian Languages
The BBC’s Asian Network asked listeners to send in their questions about the vaccine to have them answered by experts. Listeners’ concerns ranged from the vaccine’s long-term effects to whether the ingredients are halal or vegetarian-friendly. You can watch the vaccine Q&A videos in five South Asian languages here.
Uncovering the Myths about the Vaccine
The British Islamic Medica Association addresses some of the myths surrounding the Covid- 19 vaccine: https://britishima.org/operation-vaccination/hub/covidmyths/
The following Myths are addressed:
· MYTH: GPs are making a lot of money from COVID vaccinations
· MYTH: COVID is no more dangerous than the flu
· MYTH: COVID vaccine causes irreversible side effects
· MYTH: COVID is caused by the 5G network
· MYTH: COVID deaths are being exaggerated
· MYTH: Doctors want to force people to be vaccinated
· MYTH: The COVID vaccine ingredients are Haram
· MYTH: Vaccines contain aborted foetal cells
· MYTH: Vaccines are being used to chip and track the population
· MYTH: Vaccines are unsafe – that is why no pregnant women were in trials
· MYTH: Pharmaceutical companies are all evil so we can’t trust them
· MYTH: The vaccine was approved too quickly to be safe
· MYTH: The vaccine may modify your DNA
· MYTH: The inventor of the PCR test said it was not made to detect diseases such as COVID
· MYTH: PCR is inaccurate and overestimating COVID infections
· MYTH: 99.97% recover from COVID, but 3% get major side effects from vaccine
· MYTH: Wearing a mask is bad for your health
· MYTH: We should just wait for herd immunity
· MYTH: If hospitals are so busy why are Nightingale hospitals empty?
