Why the UK’s Marginalised Communities Are Reluctant to Get Vaccinated
In April 2021, the UK government launched a new ad campaign targeting younger citizens, urging them to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The campaign’s primary point of argument was that “collective effort” is required to overcome this pandemic. The ads rightly pointed out that all we needed was to, as the often-repeated phrase goes, “do our bit” – but why did the government decide such a campaign was necessary?
Vaccine hesitancy among younger populations has been, as the BBC reported in March of 2021, a “background fear” for some time. The recently released Office of National Statistics (ONS) findings would support this notion, with 13 percent of 16 to 29-year-olds “hesitant” to get the jab. Various experts believe this hesitancy can be explained by a lack of targeted messaging towards younger people, the overwhelming deluge of vaccine-related misinformation present across social media platforms, and the fact that it is “difficult to appeal to civic duty with young people.” In practice, however, some of these assertions fall short.
London’s “Super Saturday” event on June 19, spread across many of the capital’s largest venues and offering first jabs to anyone over 18, vaccinated tens of thousands of young Brits. As anti-vax protesters did their best to dissuade people from queuing up, youngsters were undeterred, volunteering with the NHS and St John Ambulance and giving up their free time to provide as many jabs as possible. I saw these groups myself on the day: the NHS staff, the volunteers, the long lines of people eager to be vaccinated. These are people eager to support their communities, desperate to end the long-standing suffering of families across the UK. But this was far from an isolated occurrence. Similar mass vaccination events held previously, such as the walk-in extravaganza at Twickenham, have shown the lengths to which many young people will go to acquire a vaccination even a few weeks before their scheduled appointments. Ascertaining the root catalysts of youth vaccine hesitancy, therefore, requires a more baseline examination of the general causes of hesitancy in other populations.
Vaccine hesitancy, and even outright refusal, often have different roots in each community. These concerns can be distilled into three umbrella issues: a lack of reliable medical information, socio-economic and educational disparity, and a lack of trust in the government. Members of LGBT+ or BAME communities, for instance, have historically been offered disparate healthcare when compared to their straight, cis, or white peers, an issue which has led to a distrust of medical organisations such as the NHS or government officials higher up in the chain. The same can be said of women aged 18 to 34, who are often swayed by vaccine distrust as a result of rapidly shifting government advice regarding a vaccine’s effects on fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth. Likewise, an Italian study conducted in 2020 determined that vaccine hesitancy and refusal are often directly predicated by socio-economic disparity and detrimental education. While misinformation is clearly a serious issue perpetuated by unchecked lies or half-truths on social media platforms, each instance of hesitancy is also closely linked with a governmental failing. A lack of clear, non-contradictory information; insufficient funding for education and benefits; a fracture in the fundamental ideal that the NHS is designed to serve all patients equally – in other words, each of these key missteps lays the groundwork for an epidemic of distrust and misunderstandings which can often prove fatal.
Young people fall into another such group, especially during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The current government has been quick to blame those in their 20s and 30s for case spikes and subsequent lockdowns. Repeated calls for tuition refunds or reductions in the wake of an academic year conducted mostly online have been met by silence from some government officials, and empty platitudes from others. Youth funding across the country has been cut by over 70% in less than a decade, and plans are in place to slash universities’ arts and humanities budgets in the near future. If the government is searching for a reason why some young people may not be quick to jump in line for a new vaccine, perhaps some introspection is in order.
It is unreasonable to expect blind trust from a group that has been routinely thrown under the bus in favour of other interests. A fancy new advertisement featuring a “rousing soundtrack” is not the first step to promoting trust in our government, our healthcare systems, and our vaccines. The first step should be ensuring everyone is able to access the same level of healthcare services. The first step should be funding education and youth support programmes that aid people in their developing years. The first step should be listening to the people asking for help and pleading for the government to offer accurate and comprehensive medical information they can rely on.
An ONS study from 2019 rated overall citizen trust in the government at 21 percent. While many young people eagerly await their vaccines, it is clear that the problem of distrust goes far beyond both the nation’s youth and the government’s Covid 19 response. These aforementioned solutions may not be as easy as commissioning a 20-second YouTube ad, but they are the changes that must take place if the UK government is truly searching for a solution to vaccine hesitancy – and distrust as a whole – rather than a cheap scapegoat dressed up as a humanitarian call to action.
References:
(1) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-ad-campaign-vaccine-under-50-b1837241.html
(2) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56515490
(4) https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/why-are-we-vaccine-hesitant-in-a-pandemic
(7) https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/8/2/276/htm
(9) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-56285701
(13) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/socialcapitalintheuk/2020