“Of course we have questions”

ClearView Research’s co-founder, Kenny Imafidon, shares key insights from their latest research looking at Black communities, vaccines and public health measures.

On 23 March 2020, the UK Prime Minister ordered people to “stay home” stating the UK could “turn the tide of coronavirus in 12 weeks”. Over a year later, we have experienced three national lockdowns, various restrictions and most recently the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.  

The current measures to ensure all UK residents are vaccinated by summer 2021 have been met with both compliance and scepticism. There are a number of education projects about the vaccine with the ultimate aim of increasing vaccine uptake. However, our research shows that the reason some people aren’t rushing to get the vaccine is because they have questions – perfectly legitimate ones too.

A rapid review of the literature

As part of this project, we conducted a literature review – across academic literature, grey literature and policy papers. This illustrated that the response to public health measures including vaccines by people from black, Asian and ethnic minority communities is often based on a number of factors, including trust of the system and the government, their understanding of the issue, the options available to them and their access to information, and their own views and values on healthy behaviour and healthy lifestyles. 

Accessibility and inclusivity are both vital to the success of public health campaigns as highlighted in the literature. Including local people through community-oriented approaches and working in partnership is key to ensuring messaging resonated with people as well as an important way of engaging communities. Similarly, strategies that illustrate an understanding of cultural values, beliefs and views were also shown to be effective.