Last modified on Thu 29 Apr 2021 15.34 EDT
Up to a quarter of British healthcare workers have expressed hesitancy towards Covid-19 vaccines, the first comprehensive study of NHS and care staff suggests. Conspiracy beliefs, a paucity of black and ethnic minority participants in vaccine trials, or assuming immunity to Covid-19 because of previous infection were some of the key reasons cited.
“Understanding these drivers is important, because without this understanding you can’t implement any interventions,” said Dr Manish Pareek, associate clinical professor in infectious diseases at the University of Leicester who led the study.
Pareek and his colleagues previously identified lower rates of vaccine uptake among black and south Asian health staff, workers under 30, and those living in more deprived areas. To better understand the reasons for this hesitancy, they recruited 11,584 clinical and non-clinical staff working for the NHS and other health providers, such as dental prac
Source: Ingimage
Fresh calls have been made for strategies to “build trust and dispel myths” surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine after a new study revealed almost a quarter of UK health workers have hesitations – with this being more common among those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.
Concerningly, researchers also warned that experiences of discrimination and structural inequalities had “contributed to a lack of trust in the vaccine” among staff.
“We urgently need strategies to build trust and dispel myths surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine
Katherine Woolf
The latest UK-REACH study, led by the University of Leicester, explored ethnic differences in Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among more than 11,500 clinical and non-clinical health workers in the UK.
New study assesses COVID-19 risk among UK healthcare workers
Researchers in the UK have reported the protocol for a longitudinal study investigating the risk of adverse physical and mental health outcomes related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers from different ethnic groups.
The study aims to address the emerging evidence and growing concerns that healthcare workers (HCWs) from ethnic minority groups appear to be at a greater risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes than white HCWs.
The protocol describes the UK-REACH (United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers) longitudinal cohort study.
Katherine Woolf from University College London Medical School and colleagues say questionnaire data will be collected from UK healthcare workers and ancillary workers at baseline, and then 4 months and 8 months from baseline. With consent, the data will be linked to healthcare records and participants will be followed for up t