Alisha Issa, 16, remembers the moment her mum finally agreed to get the coronavirus vaccine. It was a chilly Tuesday afternoon in Bolton and the pair had gone for a walk before it got dark. Alisha went through her mother’s questions and fears again, answering what she could. When, at the end of the walk, her mum agreed to take the jab, she was filled with a sense of relief.
“She was very hesitant and very worried, but she didn’t have any regrets after she took it. She was saying it was painless and that it was so well organised,” Alisha said. She had similar conversations with her grandparents and turned to her A-level biology books to answer the worries they had.
Alisha is not alone. Across the UK, friends and family members have been having important conversations with vaccine-hesitant loved ones to try to encourage them to get the jab. Many are scared about the unprecedented speed at which vaccines have been produced and fear they could have unintended consequences. The issue is particularly acute in black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities where, despite evidence that they have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, they are among the least likely to take up the jab.
Elena Sanchez-Heras, a cell biologist, was trained by Newham vaccine leaders on how to talk to people reaching out to the London borough about the vaccine deployment. She often suggests people talk to family members who have had the jab. “When they come back on the phone to me, they feel much more at peace with the vaccine. Whatever the relative says is more valuable,” she said.
Oya Christie-Miller, an educational consultant from Norfolk, still has the text from a close family friend – who is Bulgarian-Turkish and in their 60s with pre-existing health conditions – telling her she would refuse to be immunised. “The text said: ‘I’m scared. I’ve heard it’s not good for some people and there are also a few who have died from it or have become paralysed.’”
Quick guide When will I get offered the vaccine in the UK?
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The government’s joint committee on vaccination and immunisation published a list of groups of to be prioritised to receive a vaccine for Covid-19 in the UK. The list is:
1. residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. all those 60 years of age and over
8. all those 55 years of age and over
9. all those 50 years of age and over
As of 27 February 2021, at least 20 million adults had received one or more doses of a vaccine.
Once all the top nine priority groups have been offered at least one jab, it will then be given out to the rest of the adult population according to their age group. The age ranges, who expect to be invited for vaccination from around mid-April, are:
1.all those aged 40-49 years
2. all those aged 30-39 years
3. all those aged 18-29 years
Some have argued that there should be prioritisation according to people in vulnerable professions or from ethnicities facing a disproportionate effect from the virus, however the government has countered that to collect and act on this data will take longer than simply using existing NHS data on age.
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Christie-Miller, who signed up to be a volunteer vaccinator, spent the next few months talking through her friend’s concerns and providing accurate information. “I just thought: I have to be honest with her that I think she needs to get vaccinated on one hand, but if I push too soon too far, then she might just stop talking to me about this. So I had to be kind of gentle about my effort to convince her,” she said.
When Christie-Miller, who is in a higher-risk group, was offered the jab, she told her friend she was having it. She gave regular updates of what it was like at the vaccination centre and how she felt afterwards.
“She checked in with me again the following day and asked how I was doing. I told her I felt great and had no side-effects,” she said. The friend later texted to say she would book an appointment, and her husband and granddaughter went with her. “She was so scared and almost backed out. But she did it. She was like, OK, it’s good for me. And that was that. I felt so triumphant and happy that she did it.”
A doctor from Liverpool who had to convince her mother, a black woman in her 70s with underlying conditions, to be vaccinated, urged people to be patient with their relatives. “Explore what their concerns are in a kind and non-judgmental way before you give your opinion. With my mum, I tried to get to the bottom of why she was so apprehensive. If I hadn’t been a doctor and didn’t know about the whole research application process, I would have said, ‘I’m gonna go away, find some answers and then I’m gonna come back to you with information’,” they said.
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