Half a million adults inWest Midlands have not had first jab

AROUND half a million adults in the West Midlands have not had their first Covid jab, latest figures show.

Nearly a third of adults in Birmingham and a fifth in the Black Country are unvaccinated.

Ministers and health experts are desperately trying to get the message out to people to get their booster vaccinations amid increasing alarm over the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

But analysis by the Birmingham Post revealed that there are tens of thousands in the region who have not even had their first jab.

It comes as daily coronavirus records were broken this week, with infection rates soaring across the country.

Latest NHS data showed 69.5 per cent of adults in Birmingham have had their first vaccine. That means around 300,000 adults are not vaccinated at all. Around 54 per cent of over-50s in Birmingham and 61 per cent in the Black Country have had their booster jab amid a race to get as many jabs in arms before the end of the year.

Lisa McNally, director of public health in Sandwell, said it is crucial people get their boosters. She said: “We really need to be delaying this (Omicron) for as long as we can. We’re in a race: Omicron vs boosters. The ratio between the two will be a key determinant of hospitalisation and death this winter.”

The most deprived city neighbourhoods have the lowest first jab vaccination rates, including: Newtown, Holyhead, Nechells, Soho and Jewellery Quarter, Birchfield, Bordesley and Highgate, Ladywood, Alum Rock and Bordesley Green. First dose take up rates among the older age groups (60-plus) in those areas is better but still less than 75%. Predictably, booster take-up in these areas is also abysmal, reaching fewer than one in ten adults.

Worst hit are Alum Rock (8.1% booster uptake), Newtown (8.3%), Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East (9.9%) and Bordesley Green (10.4%).

It is continuing a trend seen throughout the vaccine rollout.

In August the Post reported that nearly half of Brummies were still not vaccinated and that being poor, black or Asian was still the biggest barrier.

MP Khalid Mahmood, whose Perry Barr constituency includes Newtown, Holyhead and Birchfield, said he was worried about the potential impact on local residents and workforces if they continued to resist.

He said he believed more could, and should, be done to encourage the hesitant to change their minds, and incentivise them to take the jabs.

This should include more door to door vaccinations which would offer hesitant households the chance to be jabbed together; allied to a concerted telephone campaign using speakers of local languages.

Council and other public sector organisations could step up to take the burden off already overwhelmed GPs to do this work, he added.

He is also pressing for more to be done to take the vaccine out to the disabled and others who are housebound due to physical or mental health concerns.

He praised neighbouring Sandwell Council for a string of initiatives to try to reach vulnerable communities in areas bordering Perry Barr – including intensive outreach work in hotspot areas supported by local residents and native speakers.

Neighbouring MP Steve McCabe, representing Selly Oak, said he feared that ‘mumbo jumbo’ misinformation was a source of much of the hesitancy seen in some areas and has called for social media organisations to do more to boot off conspiracy fear mongers.

Families living in overcrowded, terraced homes, often with multiple generations under the same roof, knew they faced risks, said community stalwart and radio presenter Mohammed Ali.

But mistrust of authorities, language barriers, misinformation shared via WhatsApp and other private messaging apps and word of mouth from trusted elders were all playing a part, he said.

“We are not anti-vax, we see Covid death all around us” – that was the message then, and it has not changed.