These days Berkshire GP Dr Rupa Joshi has been working very hard to ensure no one gets left behind on the vaccination effort. She’s a key player in the vital work talking place to engage with communities to increase vaccine confidence and uptake.
Recent figures from the Royal Society for Public Health show that 57 per cent of respondents from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds were likely to accept a Covid vaccine, compared to 79 per cent of White respondents. Confidence was lowest among respondents of Asian ethnicity of whom 55 per cent were likely to say yes.
The King’s Fund, responding to these findings, has said work to understand what is driving this vaccine hesitancy within these hard-to-reach communities is best done locally. And this is where Dr Joshi steps in. She has joined health and social care colleagues across Berkshire to produce a range of short videos and webinars aimed at dispelling the myths surrounding the Covid vaccine.
A SAGE report from December 2020 suggests key barriers to vaccine uptake include perception of risk, low confidence in the jab, distrust, access barriers, inconvenience, socio-demographic context and lack of endorsement or vaccine offer or communication from trusted providers and community leaders.
Dr Joshi therefore plays an important role not just as a respected local GP, but also, as Co Clinical Director of the Wokingham North Primary Care Network, a highly regarded community leader. And the role of community champions is being pioneered as one of the most effective ways to educate and empower communities, break down barriers to vaccine uptake and tackle mistrust.
“My parents recently had their first jab, and I was pleased to be able to reassure them beforehand. They too had seen the scare stories and it was very easy for me to talk to them on the phone and explain that neither of the vaccines have any live virus in them, they are vegetarian and do not contain animal products such as beef, pig or lard and they do not affect your DNA. Of course, it’s easy for me to pick up the phone and talk to my family, the challenge now is to reach out to reassure our wider community, answer their questions and really stress the importance of having the jab. And the videos are one of the ways of doing this,” said Dr Joshi.
“I’m also asked by patients about the effect on their fertility and I can reassure them that the vaccine does not affect that either. In fact, I watched the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Jonathan Van Tam on TV earlier this month saying the myths around the vaccine and fertility were a ‘nasty, pernicious scare story.’
“Then there’s concern about the speed with which the vaccine has been rolled out, but many tens of thousands of people took part in the trials last year and these vaccines have been tested with more people than many earlier vaccines for other diseases. Pharmaceutical companies also started investing early on in the manufacturing process which meant there was no delay in the completion of testing and roll out,” she added.
“I think there are other issues at play as well as the fake news and scare stories and this is a deep seated multi-generational reservation and fear that some people in our communities have about accessing the NHS.
“All these factors reinforce the need for dedicated efforts to support uptake amongst our communities who have sadly already suffered far higher Covid death rates throughout the pandemic,” said Dr Joshi.
