Sir Lenny Henry has written an open letter urging black Brits to get a Covid jab amid fears some communities remain vulnerable.
Around four in 10 elderly black people are unlikely to have had a jab. Vaccination rates for over 70s were estimated to be just 58.8%, the Office for National Statistics found.
Overall, the odds of not having received a jab were 5.5 times greater for people from black African backgrounds and four times greater for black Caribbean backgrounds compared with white Brits.
Sir Lenny, 62, enlisted support from actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton, radio personality Trevor Nelson, football pundit Garth Crooks and author Malorie Blackman.
He said of the letter: “Everybody signed it because we all believe this a time for us to be looking after loved ones and there’s been a disproportionate amount of black people and brown people dying and we want to stop that.
“We think the misinformation about the science is wrong and we thought there must be something we can do to counter it and this was the big idea.”
The letter to “mums, dads, grandparents, uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, daughters, sons and cousins”, says the “new normal may mean needing a vaccine to do many of the things we now take for granted”.
It adds: “You have legitimate worries and concerns. But we’re asking you to trust the facts about the vaccine from our own professors, doctors, scientists, GPs, not just in the UK but across the world, including the Caribbean and Africa.”
Asked why there was caution, Sir Lenny said: “I think there’s mistrust. Certain institutions haven’t done right by the black community in the past.
"One of the things that got us so deeply into this is the hesitancy of Government to lock down.
"They waited and that’s why we’re in this terrible situation, so it’s a bit ironic to accuse the black community of hesitating.”
Among black Caribbeans over 70 the estimated jab rate is 68.7%, with 72.7% and 74% for Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds. The estimated rate for white people is 91.3%.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the figures were “cause for deep alarm.”
The PM’s spokesman said: “Our focus is on promoting the benefits of the vaccine.”
The letter, also backed by the NHS and actors Adrian Lester and David Harewood and musician KSI, has been turned into a short film by Amma Asante.
- See the film on Sky, BT Sport, Viacom, Discovery, A&E, ROK and Channel 5, Tuesday, 8pm.
'Jab is all-important for Black and Asian Britain hardest hit by UK's Covid-19 havoc'
- comment, by Darren Lewis
We say it so often to each other now, don’t we? – “Be safe!”
Well here now is an opportunity to put those words into action. Black and Asian Britain has been hardest hit by the Covid-19 havoc sweeping across the UK. The Government has done us no favours. First by sticking their collective head in the sand over the death and critical illness toll throughout the black and brown contingent.
Second, by ignoring us when they published their priority lists.
That, combined with a history of medicine routinely failing our cultures over the years, has produced an understandable vaccine hesitancy.
Trust is in short supply when it comes to the people in power. That shouldn’t be the same, however, for the health professionals with our best interests at heart.
We want our lives to get back to normal. We don’t want our elderly to continue having to shield and the sacrifices of
our doctors and nurses to have been in vain.
We want to give ourselves a fighting chance if we do find ourselves struck down by the virus. For that to happen, the
jab is all-important.
