Ministers fear low take up of jab by some minorities fueled by anti-vaxxers going viral on social media

Ministers are looking at ways to counter the influence of anti-vaxxers on social media because they fear some of their more strident claims – that Africans are being used as guinea pigs – are putting ethnic minorities off having the Covid-19 vaccines.

Government and NHS health officials are deeply concerned at the speed at which disinformation is now flooding social media sites such as WhatsApp and Facebook, and that these viral videos are having a particularly disproportionate impact on some ethnic communities.

Health officials and social workers are already working closely with minority ethnic and religious community groups around the country in an effort to discuss directly with them why such a large proportion have such deep misgivings about the vaccines.

But ministers admit that they are finding it difficult to get through the scepticism being raised by the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists as many faith-based groups – particularly within the Nigerian and Orthodox Jewish communities – are more likely to believe their religious leaders than politicians or health experts.

The government is already working on a multi-pronged campaign to persuade more people from ethnic minorities to come forward to take-up the vaccine, including the recent video put together by black MPs from across the parties to encourage them to have the vaccine.

Both Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, and Kemi Badenoch, the Treasury Minister, took part in trials for the Novavax vaccine in another attempt to demonstrate that the jabs are safe.

Analysis by the Office for National Statistics has found all ethnic minority groups – other than Chinese – are more likely to die from the virus than other groups. Black men in England and Wales had the highest rate of death involving Covid-19, which was 2.7 times higher than white men. Women of black Caribbean background had a death rate that was twice that of white women in England and Wales.

Yet ironically these minority groups are also half as likely to want the jab.  Persuading all communities across the UK to have their injections is considered essential to the government’s vaccination rollout, as it is only when the maximum number of people have been vaccinated that the Prime Minister will start to unlock the lockdown.

Ethnic minorities make up about 13 per cent of the British population with Asians representing about 7.5 per cent while the black community makes up about 4 per cent.

But it is members of these communities that have been the most hesitant to roll up their sleeves. According to the UK Household Longitudinal Study, published earlier this year, nearly three quarters of black Brits surveyed said they were unlikely or very unlikely to get a coronavirus vaccine.

The data, which goes back to last November, also shows that those from Britain’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities were also hesitant, with 42 per cent saying they were unlikely or very unlikely to get vaccinated.

One health official source said: “We are very concerned because our research is demonstrating that some of these videos on WhatsApp and Facebook are going viral in many of the communities which have been worst hit by Covid-19. Sadly, people are believing what they hear.”

The source added that community campaigners, NHS staff and social workers are trying desperately to get the message across that the vaccines are safe but they are seeing great resistance, particularly among some within the Christian Nigerian, south Asian and Orthodox Jewish communities.

“It’s an odd situation because there is not this resistance to the annual flu vaccines, or other vaccinations. But the fear being stoked by some of the anti-vaxxers and religious leaders that the vaccine will kill them is real.

“There are many diverse reasons why some of these groups are more sceptical than others. But there is no question that the grip these anti-vaxxers seem to have over many is scaring people, and putting them off coming forward for the vaccine.”

Among the most strident of the anti-vaxxing and conspiracy theorist campaigners which are flooding social media groups within the Nigerian community are two leading community figures: Dino Melaye, a former Senator and Nigerian politician, whose Twitter video calls on all Africans to refuse to have the vaccine, and demands that African leaders should not allow their people to be used as “guinea pigs by the developed nations for their satanic reasons.”

Another highly influential figure is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the Pentecostal founder of LoveWorld Incorporated and its church, Christ Embassy, with more than a 100 branches worldwide. In videos which have swept the Nigerian Pentecostal community, Pastor Chris, who has more than three million followers, claims that coronavirus lockdowns are happening so that 5G networks can be built, and that the ultimate aim is not to curb the spread of the disease, but to go after the ‘church of Jesus Christ.’

Video interviews with an American-trained doctor, who believes that the mRNA vaccine is introducing non-human DNA into the body, has been translated into Urdu and widely shared within the Asian community.

Many British Asian celebrities – including comedian Romesh Ranganathan and cricketer Moeen Ali – have also made a video urging people within their community to get the vaccine and counter the spread of misinformation.