As the Chair of ELREC, an equality organisation, I want to share some of our concerns in regards to Covid and the roll out of the vaccine, especially amongst BAME groups.
Since the start of this pandemic, it’s been obvious that information has not always been disseminated properly specifically amongst our local ethnic minority communities.
There hasn’t been official translated information made available to minority groups, specifically to those with language and literacy issues which is quite prevalent amongst the older BAME generations.
People not being able to understand something is daunting as it is but if it relates to their health and wellbeing then it’s an actual risk to them. Many older south Asians living in Edinburgh and Lothians rely on friends and family to relay information to them, and this doesn’t always happen so they are left to rely on foreign messages which may not always be correct.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the information hasn’t always been executed the best or in a responsible manner which has led to many relying on other sources.
Misinformation in these circumstances can be just as deadly as the virus. People need to know factual information about every aspect of the pandemic. As the vaccine is being rolled out, we need to know the facts, in order to ensure all individuals are vaccinated.
We need facts, such as the ingredients and side effects. Many BAME people have underlying health issues and illnesses specific to their groups so how will the vaccine affect them, has it been tested vastly and diversely enough.
Everyone has the right to correct information, in a manner they understand and can apply to their lives and this is the responsibility of every government. I call on the Scottish Government to ensure the facts regarding the vaccine are communicated to the BAME community in a way that reassures them.
Foysol Choudhury MBE
Chair. Edinburgh and Lothian Regional Equality Council
A 101 year old born during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic has received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination.Emily Lawson, from Kirkintilloch, was one of the first in line as part of the rollout of the vaccination programme to vaccinate people over the age of 80 in the community.
Mrs Lawson, born in 1919 as the pandemic spread across the globe, was found at one month old lying next to her mother who had caught the deadly strain of influenza and was too ill to look after her new baby.
Now, more than a century later and living through another pandemic, she has been vaccinated by Samantha Wheadon, a Practice Nurse from Turret Medical Centre in Kirkintilloch.
When asked how she felt about receiving the vaccine she took it in her stride, commenting: “it was normal, just another vaccine”.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) currently has more than 450 vaccinators working across hospital and community settings to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations in a swift and safe manner. Currently the health board is vaccinating around 20,000 people every week and in February, this number is expected to rise to 80,000.
GPs are leading on the vaccination roll-out for their patients aged 80 years and over, and are scheduling appointments locally once they receive supplies of the vaccine.
Dr Linda De Caestecker, Director for Public Health at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We have had a very high uptake of the vaccine so far with thousands of eligible staff and care home residents vaccinated already and it’s fantastic to see the community rollout begin.
“Our teams are working extremely hard to get as many people possible vaccinated as quickly as possible during this time.
“However, the rollout does not mean we can let our guard down. Our hospitals are extremely busy with COVID-19 admissions and our staff are working tirelessly to look after both COVID and non-COVID patients.
“We would urge everyone to continue following the rules to help minimise the spread of the virus.”
The FACTS guidance:
Face coverings in enclosed spaces,
Avoid crowded places,
Clean your hands regularly,
Two metre distancing
Self-isolate and book a test if you have symptoms.
Home carers in Glasgow City Council’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) will launch a ballot for industrial action next week, warning they have “no confidence” over plans for workplace testing of COVID-19 and amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the vaccination programme.
Over 1,700 GMB Scotland members will take part in a three-week ballot, running from Tuesday 19 January to Monday 8 February, meaning service delivery in the HSCP could be affected by action as early as the week beginning Monday 22 February.
It follows a massive 93 per cent support for action among GMB members in a consultative ballot last month, a direct response to the Scottish Government’s Winter Preparedness Plan which put home carers to the back of the queue in the roll-out of workplace testing delivery.
GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume said:“There is no confidence whatsoever among our members in their employer or the government to sufficiently protect their health and safety at work. And why should there be?
“They were failed on PPE at the outset of this pandemic, they have been left waiting ten months for workplace testing, and some are already encountering problems getting their first vaccine.
“The HSCP should have been fighting tooth and nail for every resource to protect the safety of their employees and their service users. Instead they have been sitting on zoom calls for nearly a year waiting on guidance from the Scottish Government, only for Ministers to leave councils carrying the can for testing delivery.
“The interests of these key workers have been consistently forgotten and they are being treated negligently by their employer, and this government.”
Doses to be administered at over 1,000 GP practices and community centres
Many more people will receive the first dose of the Oxford/Astrazeneca coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine in GP practices and community vaccination centres across Scotland from tomorrow (Monday)
The vaccine, approved for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on 30 December, has already been administered in primary care settings in NHS Tayside, Lothian, Orkney and Highland.
First doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will now start to be administered in GP practices and community centres across the rest of Scotland this week.
Scotland has an allocation of 533,640 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in January. These doses are available for local order and delivery to the different parts of Scotland over January.
Those aged 80 years and over will be invited to attend for vaccination by their local NHS Board or GP practice via a letter or by phone.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “The delivery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is a major development for the biggest vaccination programme we have ever delivered.
“I would like to thank everyone involved for their continued efforts to ensure the pace of the programme continues. Next week I will update parliament with further logistical detail of the vaccination programme.
“We have over 1,100 vaccination sites, including over 750 GP practices with a growing core of over 3000 trained vaccinators to deliver the vaccine. When it is your turn to be vaccinated you will be contacted by your local health board and I urge you to please take up the offer.
“Please do not contact your GP but wait for your letter or phone call. And please remember that when the time comes for your second dose, it is crucial you get it as this is vital for longer term protection and to complete the course.
“As ever, we are dependent on the vaccine supply and we continue to explore all possible options to speed up the delivery of all vaccine and bring forward timescales where possible.
“This work, alongside our expanded testing strategy, rigorously complying with restrictions where we live and adhering to the public health guidance, is essential to protect those most at risk and minimise further impact on the NHS and social care services.”
The number of people being treated for coronavirus in Scotland’s hospitals reached another record daily high yesterday.
Latest figures show a total of 1,596 people are in hospital with Covid, up from Friday’s figure of 1,530.
93 Covid-related deaths were recorded on Saturday, the same number as Friday which was the highest daily figure of the pandemic so far.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a statement at the coronavirus press conference yesterday (Tuesday 5 January):
Good afternoon,
I want to update everybody about vaccines because across this entire country today there are people – everybody – making another huge sacrifice.
Teachers and pupils coping with online learning
Businesses who have borne the brunt of successive lockdowns,
and, of course, the amazing staff of our NHS and our care workers who are grappling with a new variant – this new variant – of coronavirus.
And I believe that when everybody looks at the position people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice when the Office of National Statistics is telling us that more than 2 per cent of the population is now infected – that’s over 1 million people in England – and when today we have reported another 60,000 new cases. And when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40 per cent higher than at the first peak in April.
I think obviously – everybody, you all – want to be sure that we in government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination and so to begin to bring this crisis to an end.
And I can tell you that this afternoon, with Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca combined, as of this afternoon we have now vaccinated over 1.1 million people in England and over 1.3 million across the UK.
And that includes more than 650,000 people over 80, which is 23 per cent of all the over 80s in England
And that means that nearly 1 in 4 of one of the most vulnerable groups will have in 2 to 3 weeks – all of them – a significant degree of immunity.
And when you consider that the average age of Covid fatalities is in the 80s you can see the importance of what we have already achieved.
And that is why I believe that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was right to draw up a programme aimed at saving the most lives the fastest.
So by February 15th, as I said last night, the NHS is committed to offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups including older care home residents and staff, everyone over 70, all frontline NHS and care staff and all those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
And to help us with meeting this target we already have 595 GP-led sites providing vaccines, with a further 180 coming on stream later this week.
We have 107 hospital sites – with a further 100 later this week
So that is almost a thousand sites – vaccination sites – across the country by the end of this week
And next week we will also have 7 vaccination centres opening in places such as sports stadia and exhibition centres.
We know that there will still be long weeks ahead in which we must persevere with these restrictions, but I want to give you – the British people – the maximum possible transparency about this vaccine roll out with more detail on Thursday and daily updates from Monday so that you can see, day by day and jab by jab, how much progress we are making.
The first venues for the mass COVID-19 vaccination programme in Lothian have been selected. NHS Lothian has identified and agreed three large-scale venues capable of providing thousands of vaccinations at a time.
The next phase, known as Wave 2, of the vaccination programme is under way across Scotland to vaccinate people aged 75 to 79 years of age, followed by those aged 70 -74 and 65 – 69, followed by adults with risk factors over the age of 60.
NHS Lothian has been working with councils, health and social care partnerships and other partners to ensure the sites are ready when the roll-out begins, which is expected in February.
The Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), The Pyramids Business Park (PBP) in West Lothian have been agreed and details are being finalised for Queen Margaret University (QMU) in East Lothian.
A number of local supplementary centres are also being set up by the four Health and Social Care Partnerships – East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian – to supplement the bigger venues.
Announcing the choice of centres on Christmas Eve,David Small, Director of Primary Care Transformation, NHS Lothian, who is leading the programme, said he was delighted that three large-scale venues had been agreed.
“This is the biggest mass vaccination programme undertaken. It is a massive task and even though all of the teams are working at speed, we know we need to make sure we get the delivery right, first time.
“There are a lot of challenges involved across the project, but we are meeting each one and we are delighted that these three venues are finalised. We still have a number of other options to consider and explore, but this is a milestone.
“It means we can begin work in the new year while we continue planning the smaller centres which will supplement the bigger venues.”
Plans are being developed to create a walk-through centre at the EICC which would be capable of vaccinating 26,000 people in a week at a total of around 50 stations.
A similar walk-through centre is expected to be set up in PBP, which could provide 12,000 vaccinations every week using around 25 stations.
A drive-through vaccination centre is then being planned for Queen Margaret University in East Lothian that would have around 16 stations and be able to vaccinate 8,000 people a week.
People will be contacted by the NHS when they are eligible for a vaccination appointment. They should not contact the venues directly because they would not hold any of the relevant information.
This new phase will be followed in the Spring by the roll-out of Wave 3, which will again target individual age groups, staring with those aged 60-64, 55- 59, 50-54, followed by the rest of the population.
A leading charity has raised concerns over an apparent Scottish Government u-turn which sees unpaid carers now no longer included in the “first-wave” of COVID-19 vaccinations.
The concern has been raised by Kindred, an advocacy organisation supporting parents of children with complex needs, which has warned of the impact on these children if their parents contract the virus and are unable to provide care.
The charity had made the vaccine call in a letter to Health Cabinet Secretary, Jeane Freeman MSP, on 11th November on the back of a report it published highlighting the “devastating” impact of the pandemic lockdown on families of children with exceptional health needs.
On 4th December, it all became clear in a “Vaccine stakeholder note” from the Scottish Government Directorate for Mental Health and Social Care that “carers and their families are not included in the prioritisation list.”
Director of the charity, Sophie Pilgrim, has written to the Cabinet Secretary on the back of this apparent u-turn on her earlier commitment (letter available on request), noting:
“At this time of national crisis, it seems we are prepared to ignore the plight of our most vulnerable children. These children, with shorter lives, have lost out on therapy, education and social opportunities. Their parents, on whom they are totally dependent, are exhausted to the point of burnout.
“In Scotland, we pride ourselves in aspiring to be the ‘best country in the world for children to grow up’. We should dare to be different and stand up for our children who are most in need. I urge you to include unpaid carers amongst the first to receive the vaccine.”
The repeated call comes on the back of a survey undertaken of the parents of children with complex health needs.1
The results show that:
93 percent of these families experienced an impact on their ability to meet their children’s medical and care needs due to the pandemic; 63 percent said that the impact of the pandemic on their ability to provide care was ‘big’ or ‘severe’.
Two out of every three parents who took part in the survey said sleep deprivation was one of the main factors that impacted their ability to care for their children. It was the norm for these parents to get an average of five hours of broken sleep per night. Kindred has called for an urgent need to investigate the provision of overnight respite care across Scotland.
Over a third of parents received no respite care before the pandemic and this dropped to 60 per cent after the start of the pandemic. This highlights the importance of schools in supporting parents and giving them a break from caring. Almost all the children attended special school with access to therapy, and the expertise of Additional Support for Learning staff. There is no doubt that schools are preventing crisis and family breakdown where a child has high care needs.
Sophie Pilgrim, Director of Kindred, commented: “This apparent u-turn by the Scottish Government is deeply devastating news for the families of children with complex needs and life limiting conditions.
“At this time of national crisis, it seems we are prepared to ignore the plight of our most vulnerable children. These children, with shorter lives, have lost out on therapy, education and social opportunities. Their parents, on whom they are totally dependent, are exhausted to the point of burnout and simply cannot afford to get sick.
“In Scotland, we pride ourselves in aspiring to be the ‘best country in the world for children to grow up’. We should dare to be different and stand up for our children who are most in need.”
Alex Davey, from East Lothian, is fulltime carer to her six-year-old son, Benjamin, who has complex medical needs including tube-feeding, epilepsy and overnight ventilation.
“My key concern as Benjamin’s mother is that my husband and myself contract Covid-19, rendering us incapable of meeting his complex care needs, potentially for a long period of time.
“Early access to the vaccine is therefore imperative to ensure that families like ours can be sure that they can continue to care for their child.
“One can therefore only imagine our joy when we heard that unpaid carers would be among the first wave to receive the vaccine. We cheered, we celebrated, we called each other up and cried tears of pure relief. We were no longer overlooked.
“In fact, we are not just overlooked, we were cruelly misled and our hopes were built up, only to be dashed.
“We cannot understand why the Scottish Government has reneged on its commitment and we would urge it to do the honourable thing and honour the original commitment made.”
Over 100,000 people have signed up for future COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials through the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry of volunteers are helping speed up efforts to find a safe and effective vaccine in the fight against coronavirus
UK researchers urge more volunteers across all groups to sign-up, especially the over 65s and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds
Over 100,000 people have volunteered to take part in COVID-19 vaccine trials, helping to speed up efforts to discover a safe and effective vaccine.
The UK Government is today (Monday 17 August) encouraging more people to join the thousands of volunteers and sign up to the NHS COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry to help the NHS in the fight against coronavirus and ensure potential candidates work for everyone.
To enable large-scale vaccine studies to take place across the UK, the aim is to get as many people as possible signed up to the Registry by October.
Researchers particularly welcome people from all parts of society, especially those who are more likely to benefit from a vaccine, including the over 65s, frontline health and social care workers, and those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
Clinical studies with a diverse pool of volunteers will help scientists and researchers better understand the effectiveness of each vaccine candidate and will considerably speed up efforts to discover a safe and workable vaccine.
Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “From John O’Groats to Land’s End, everyone has played their part in tackling coronavirus from wearing face coverings to following social distancing guidance.
“Scientists and researchers are working day and night to find a vaccine that meets the UK’s rigorous regulatory and safety standards, but they need hundreds of thousands of people of all backgrounds and ages to sign-up for studies to speed up this vital research.
“I urge everyone to play our part in the fight against coronavirus and join the 100,000 people who have already registered, so we can help save and protect millions of lives.”
Chair of the government’s Vaccines Taskforce Kate Bingham said: “Protecting those at risk is the only way we will end this pandemic. That’s why we are working as quickly as possible to run clinical studies on the most promising vaccines to see whether they offer protection against COVID-19, whilst adhering to the UK’s strict safety and regulatory processes. And we need people throughout the UK to sign up to the registry to help us achieve this.
“Getting 100,000 volunteers on board is a great start but we need many more people from many different backgrounds that we can call on for future studies if we are to find a vaccine quickly to protect those who need it against coronavirus.”
Consultant Respiratory Physician and Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) PRC, Bradford, Dinesh Saralaya said: “The best way to protect us from future outbreaks is to develop effective vaccines. Several vaccine trials are being conducted around the UK in the coming months and it is important that we all sign up to be contacted about them.
“I would like to reassure people that research trials and studies are strictly regulated for ethics and safety. They are conducted within the framework of the NIHR, which is the research partner of the NHS, and we take every precaution to safeguard participants taking part. This includes appointments in settings like sports halls close to where people live and work rather than in hospitals.
“By working together, we can produce efficient vaccines which are likely to protect all sections of our society from this dreadful virus in future.”
18-year-old Marium Zumeer from Bradford, who was hospitalised after contracting COVID-19, has first-hand experience of the benefits of taking part in clinical trials.
During her time in intensive care, she was offered the opportunity to take part in the national RECOVERY trial, which is testing a range of potential treatments for COVID-19. This includes the drug dexamethasone, which was found to be the first drug to be effective when treating those who are critically ill with the virus.
RECOVERY trial volunteer Marium Zumeer said: “I will always be grateful for being encouraged to sign up. I remember my dad at the time urging me to take part, not just for myself but for the wider community.
“The result has been really positive for me and I would encourage others to do their bit in helping us all in the fight against coronavirus.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said: “I’m very grateful to those who have volunteered for researchers to contact them to take part in COVID-19 vaccine studies, via the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry. The more people who volunteer to take part the more likely we find an answer to whether any vaccine is effective.
“Having 100,000 volunteers in just four weeks shows the selflessness of the public and is testament to the speed of work done by the Vaccines Taskforce, National Institute for Health Research and others to make signing up possible.
“I urge people to continue to sign up. It is important that we have people from different backgrounds and ages as volunteers, so that the vaccines that are developed work for everyone.”
A number of trials in the UK are expected to begin this autumn, working with the NHS, research institutions and businesses, helping to develop and manufacture the vaccines.
Launched on 20 July, the NHS COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry is an online service allowing members of the public to register their interest in COVID-19 vaccine studies and be contacted to participate in future clinical trials.
Vaccines are tested in stages to ensure they are safe and effective. Volunteers who are contacted to take part in trials will be given information about what stage a particular vaccine is at and details of how it has already been tested. They will be able to consider this when deciding to take part and people can withdraw from the registry at any point.
The Registry has been developed by the government, in partnership with the NIHR, NHS Digital, the Scottish and Welsh governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.
Measles in India A newborn receives a routine vaccination at an immunization site, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh India.
COVID 19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around the world, putting millions of children – in rich and poor countries alike – at risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio.
This stark warning comes from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance ahead of the Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June, at which world leaders will come together to help maintain immunization programmes and mitigate the impact of the pandemic in lower-income countries.
According to data collected by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, provision of routine immunization services is substantially hindered in at least 68 countries and is likely to affect approximately 80 million children under the age of 1 living in these countries.
Since March 2020, routine childhood immunization services have been disrupted on a global scale that may be unprecedented since the inception of expanded programs on immunization (EPI) in the 1970s. More than half (53%) of the 129 countries where data were available reported moderate-to-severe disruptions, or a total suspension of vaccination services during March-April 2020.
“Immunization is one of the most powerful and fundamental disease prevention tools in the history of public health,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“Disruption to immunization programmes from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.
“At the 4 June Global Vaccine Summit in London, donors will pledge their support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to sustain and accelerate this lifesaving work in some of the most vulnerable countries. From the bottom of my heart, I urge donors to fully fund the Alliance. These countries, these children especially, need vaccines, and they need Gavi.”
The reasons for disrupted services vary. Some parents are reluctant to leave home because of restrictions on movement, lack of information or because they fear infection with the COVID-19 virus. And many health workers are unavailable because of restrictions on travel, or redeployment to COVID response duties, as well as a lack of protective equipment.
“More children in more countries are now protected against more vaccine-preventable diseases than at any point in history,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, Gavi CEO.
“Due to COVID-19 this immense progress is now under threat, risking the resurgence of diseases like measles and polio. Not only will maintaining immunization programmes prevent more outbreaks, it will also ensure we have the infrastructure we need to roll out an eventual COVID-19 vaccine on a global scale.”
Transport delays of vaccines are exacerbating the situation. UNICEF has reported a substantial delay in planned vaccine deliveries due to the lockdown measures and the ensuing decline in commercial flights and limited availability of charters.
To help mitigate this, UNICEF is appealing to governments, the private sector, the airline industry, and others, to free up freight space at an affordable cost for these life-saving vaccines. Gavi recently signed an agreement with UNICEF to provide advance funding to cover increased freight costs for delivery of vaccines, in light of the reduced number of commercial flights available for transport.
“We cannot let our fight against one disease come at the expense of long-term progress in our fight against other diseases,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.
“We have effective vaccines against measles, polio and cholera. While circumstances may require us to temporarily pause some immunization efforts, these immunizations must restart as soon as possible, or we risk exchanging one deadly outbreak for another.”
Next week, WHO will issue new advice to countries on maintaining essential services during the pandemic, including recommendations on how to provide immunizations safely.
Mass immunization campaigns temporarily disrupted
Many countries have temporarily and justifiably suspended preventive mass vaccination campaigns against diseases like cholera, measles, meningitis, polio, tetanus, typhoid and yellow fever, due to risk of transmission and the need to maintain physical distancing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Measles and polio vaccination campaigns, in particular, have been badly hit, with measles campaigns suspended in 27 countries and polio campaigns put on hold in 38 countries.
At least 24 million people in 21 Gavi-supported lower-income countries are at risk of missing out on vaccines against polio, measles, typhoid, yellow fever, cholera, rotavirus, HPV, meningitis A and rubella due to postponed campaigns and introductions of new vaccines.
In late March, concerned that mass gatherings for vaccination campaigns would enflame transmission of COVID-19 WHO recommended countries to temporarily suspend preventive campaigns while assessments of risk, and effective measures for reducing COVID virus transmission were established.
WHO has since monitored the situation and has now issued advice to help countries determine how and when to resume mass vaccination campaigns. The guidance notes that countries will need to make specific risk assessments based on the local dynamics of COVID-19 transmission, the health system capacities, and the public health benefit of conducting preventive and outbreak response vaccination campaigns.
Based on this guidance, and following growing concerns about increasing transmission of polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), is advising countries to start planning for the safe resumption of polio vaccination campaigns, especially in polio high-risk countries.
Despite the challenges, several countries are making special efforts to continue immunization. Uganda is ensuring that immunization services continue along with other essential health services, even funding transportation to ensure outreach activities. And in Lao PDR, despite a national lockdown imposed in March, routine immunization in fixed sites continued with physical distancing measures in place.
