Ethnic minorities are more hesitant about taking the vaccine — I can understand why

It’s 2021 and Covid-19 still has us all by the throat. The good news: we have a vaccine. The bad news: a worrying number of us aren’t very interested in taking it. Even more alarming are the recent stats that suggest that only 33 per cent of ethnic minorities are committed to having the jab. If you didn’t know already, ethnic minorities are much more vulnerable to the virus than our white counterparts. Women are also less likely to take it than men, and fewer than 50 per cent of Londoners say they’ll have it. As a black female Londoner, I belong to all three categories and though I’m more than willing to be a human pin cushion when called, I can also say that I’m not surprised that many people from ethnic minorities in particular aren’t as keen.  

Far from the tinfoil hat-wearing image I usually have of conspiracy theorists, I’ve found that friends of mine — people I know to be progressive, well-educated and on the side of science for most things — have many doubts about the vaccine. Black people have a horrifying history with experimental medicine, dating back to slavery, but even today we feel the brunt of a system that doesn’t seem too concerned about our collective wellbeing. After it was confirmed that Covid affected us much more than any other ethnic group, we saw no efforts to investigate this further. We see the same thing with mortality rates among pregnant black women being much higher than for any other group. Such issues, as well as those like the Windrush scandal, show us what little regard the Government has for us — why should we trust that they have our best interest at heart now?

Plenty of the white British public aren’t very trusting either. From late lockdowns to flimsy border controls and an inability to get a functional app off the ground, it’s hard to put trust in a Government that seems to be making things up as they go along.  

I’m hoping that as more people get vaccinated, the tides will turn and people will become more informed and willing, but it’s still concerning to think that already vulnerable demographics of people may be putting themselves even more at risk. The Government needs to do more. A good place to start would be reassuring ethnic minorities that their medical concerns do matter, around Covid and beyond. It’s also important that those of us in these communities start dialogues to help stop misinformation, rather than shaming people who have valid concerns. Our relationship with medicine might be prickly, but the worst thing would be to make a delicate situation worse by turning down the chance to defeat a virus that already has us on our knees.

Today is Blue Monday, otherwise known as the most depressing day of the year. If the past year is anything to go by though, it has also come to be known as... Monday. I’m hard pressed to think of a day that hasn’t been miserable since March 2020 — not even Christmas could save us. I’m not sure how people observe Blue Monday but Samaritans has rebranded it Brew Monday — a day to check in with loved ones over a virtual cuppa. I quite like the idea of a Boozy Monday — similar concept, different refreshments. Bubblebath Monday is an alternative for the languishers among us, or Bingewatch Monday if you’d rather distract yourself with Night Stalker, the Netflix series about a literal serial killer. There are plenty of ways to put your own spin on a miserable day even if it just means leaning into it and having a good moan to anyone who will listen.