Rough sleepers fear vaccine will be tracker
BUT ONLY A FEW HAVE CONTRACTED VIRUS
SOME rough sleepers in Nottingham have been refusing to get vaccinated against coronavirus due to “conspiracy theories” and believing the Government may be attempting to track their whereabouts.
Outreach workers who work with the homeless in Nottingham have spoken out about the dangers of misinformation.
Ever since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, conspiracy theories and misinformation has spread at an alarming rate.
From anti-lockdown protests to demonstrations against Covid vaccinations, there has been a regular battle against controversial and potentially dangerous misinformation.
Numerous organisations have argued that misinformation may even prove the biggest threat to ending the coronavirus pandemic itself.
Despite typically being secluded from the rest of society, rough sleepers in Nottingham, who are perhaps some of the most vulnerable people in the city due to health conditions, have not been free from exposure to Covid.
Samantha Lanes, the team leader of the street outreach team, told the Post: “It has been up and down really. Some people have really jumped at the chance to get vaccinated.
“But also we’ve had people refuse it. We’ve had a few people who are conspiracy theorists and say it is the Government trying to track them.
“The way we have been working is we are giving them the information and we never force any of them. They can make their own choice.”
At the beginning of the year those who are street homeless were put on the priority list for the Covid vaccine.
By April more than 300 rough sleepers had been jabbed, using the mobile vaccination bus and jab sites across the city to make sure they were protected.
Fortunately, Ms Lanes says since the beginning of the pandemic there have only been five rough sleepers who have been symptomatic, to her knowledge, and perhaps it is the only positive to be taken from a very difficult and heartbreaking situation.
“I was surprised,” she says.
“I do not know what it is, whether it is the fresh air or something.
“We were concerned we might have an influx in people having to isolate, but we have only had two episodes of staff having it as well.
“And in almost two years that is impressive. We are a fully-vaccinated team.”