The NHS jab refuseniks
Almost a quarter of London’s frontline staff not vaccinated 4,700 healthcare workers in Leicester are not protected too Nurse tells MoS how five colleagues turned down jabs ...AND THE WOMEN WHO ARE TRYING TO SAVE THE DAY
ALMOST a quarter of frontline NHS staff in London, including some doctors and nurses, have failed to accept the Covid jab, shock Government figures reveal.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday today exposes how the drive to inoculate health workers has stalled amid an alarming vaccine hesitancy, particularly among some ethnic minority employees.
More than 41,000 frontline healthcare workers, which i ncludes medics, hospital porters, cleaners and laboratory staff, have not had the jab in the capital, equivalent to 24 per cent of the workforce.
London is dramatically lagging behind the rest of the country, with only six per cent of staff across England’s six other regions having failed to take up the vaccine.
With t housands of f r ontli ne s t aff s t i l l unprotected against the virus, health officials fear the low vaccine take-up could derail the Government’s timetable for lifting lockdown. Misplaced safety fears, conspiracy theories and a mistrust of Government have been blamed for the hesitancy among some ethnic groups and those in deprived areas.
In a historic intervention, the Queen said last week that those who refuse the vaccine ‘ought to think about other people rather than themselves’.
But last night, a nurse at an NHS centre in South London told the MoS how five of her colleagues were refusing to have their jabs, saying: ‘There is a proportion of staff who, despite it being easily accessible, don’t want to receive it. I have been talking to some of our staff, but I haven’t been able to persuade anyone.’
La s t week, t h e MoS a s k e d England’s 20 biggest hospital trusts, as well as 11 others in London, to detail how many staff have received the first dose of the jab.
We also asked for figures on how many ethnic minority staff had been inoculated.
All of t he t rusts refused to release the figures, with some suggesting that NHS bosses were blocking them from disclosing the information.
A spokesman for a major hospital in northern England said that under a ‘national protocol’ it had to refer all media enquiries to NHS England for ‘advice and agreement’.
A source at a major London hospital added: ‘ All the trusts have to cede communications control to NHS England and so we aren’t able to operate in the way we normally would.’
The MoS, however, understands that more than 4,700 health care staff at University Hospitals of Leicester Trust, equivalent to 25 per cent of the workforce, have not yet been vaccinated.
An alarming study released earlier this month revealed that while 71 per cent of white staff had received the jab, the figures fell to 58.5 per cent for South Asian staff and 36.8 per cent for black staff.
Professor Kamlesh Khunti, one of the lead authors of the study, said take-up figures are improving but that it would take time to win sceptics around.
He said: ‘I had a Muslim individual who came in today and said he wasn’t sure about it. We sat for about 15 to 20 minutes and I think I convinced him. It’s a matter of time really.’
He said there was distrust among some black staff because of historic cases of medical research abuse in the USA, while some both white and ethnic minority female staff have told him of unfounded fears that the vaccine could affect fertility. ‘That’s come up quite a lot – that it might cause infertility.
‘I’ve got a white young nurse I was talking to and she just wouldn’t have it.’
It emerged last month that while overall 80 per cent of staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London had been vaccinated, the rate was around a quarter among black staff and lower still for Filipino staff.
Meanwhile, the Royal Free Hospital in North London, which admitted England’s second Covid- 19 patient on February 9 last year, is understood to be planning to release a podcast which discusses the benefits of taking the vaccine, while staff who have received the jab are using social media to appeal for others to come forward.
Medics elsewhere in the UK, including Dr Nighat Arif, a GP in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, are taking part in a social media cam
‘It’s come up quite a lot that it causes infertility’
paign, supported by the UN, which sees experts using TikTok to encourage vaccine acceptance.
Gunju Ogunbiyi, c o ns ul t a nt colorectal surgeon at the Royal Free, said having the jab was a ‘no brainer’ after he spent five weeks in intensive care last year, including three weeks on a ventilator, with Covid-19.
Writing on Instagram, he said: ‘I know the reasons why members of ethnic minority communities may be suspicious, particularly within the Black community, but these concerns are unfounded.’
Dr Sarah Afuwape, a psychologist at the same hospital, said she decided to have the jab to protect patients after initially delaying her decision. ‘I didn’t get the vaccine i mmediately when I was invited, I waited about three weeks. I like to be well- informed and wanted to see what other information became available.
‘ I work in a dialysis unit, our patients are not able to self-isolate as they need to come in for dialysis three times a week. Working in this environment was certainly part of my decision to be vaccinated.’ The alarmingly low vaccination figures among London NHS staff is reflected in the take-up rate among the rest of the capital’s ethnically diverse population.
Of the 24 local authorities in England with the lowest proportion of over-70s vaccinated so far, 23 are in London, according to an analysis of NHS data by the MoS. Luton, which has a large population of Pakistani origin, is 18th worst and the only place on the list outside London.
Across England as a whole a stunning 95.9 per cent of over-70s had received their first dose of Covid vaccine by last Sunday, the latest date for which such detailed information is available.
But in London the average was only 85.2 per cent. In 11 of London’s 32 boroughs, more than a fifth of over- 70s had not received their first Covid jab by last Sunday.
Members of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies ( SAGE) fear that local Covid flare-ups could develop in areas with low take-up rates, even as most of t he country becomes largely protected thanks to vaccination.
Dr Habib Naqvi, Director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory – whi c h was e s t a b l i s h e d to identify and tackle the specific health problems facing people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds – last night said he was ‘ deeply concerned’ about low vaccine uptake among some NHS staff.
‘This is not just an individual decision but one that has wider implications for protecting the health of patients, loved ones and colleagues,’ he said.
An NHS spokesman said: ‘ All NHS staff in London have been offered the vaccine and vaccinating staff has progressed faster in the capital over the past week than in any other region.’
‘This has implications for patients and colleagues’