People from minority ethnic groups in Britain are twice as likely to be under-vaccinated against Covid-19 compared to those from white British backgrounds.
That is the striking finding of a study conducted by scientists from UK health data surveysuggesting that people from these groups are more likely to need hospital treatment or are at risk of death from Covid because they do not have full protection against the disease.
“The results are very clear,” says Prof. Angela Wood of HDR UK and Cambridge University. “Based on data from 67 million people from England, Scotland and Wales, we found that at the start of this year, only around 40% of people from white backgrounds had not had their full Covid vaccinations, while 80% of individuals from some ethnic backgrounds groups did. undervaccinated. It really is a striking difference.”
Those under-vaccinated by 80% included people from black African, black Caribbean and Asian-Pakistani backgrounds. Others, including those in Asian Chinese and Asian Indian groups, were about 60% undervaccinated.
“A person is considered to be undervaccinated if they have missed any of the Covid jabs recommended for their age group,” Wood told the newspaper. Observer.
The discovery of the high vulnerability of ethnic groups to Covid comes as health services prepare for an expected rise in cases as winter approaches. Doctors and pharmacies already offer injections to eligible people, such as care home residents and people over 65.
The research into ethnic groups and Covid vaccines follows on from a study published earlier this year in which scientists worked together to reveal the uptake of Covid vaccines in Britain. This allowed them to identify the proportion of people who were under-vaccinated at the end of 2022 in England (46%), Northern Ireland (50%), Scotland (33%) and Wales (34%).
“We also found that people who were more likely to be undervaccinated were male, younger and from more disadvantaged backgrounds,” Wood said.
The consequences of the lack of full vaccination were profound, the study found. An estimated 7,000 serious outcomes from Covid-19, including hospitalizations and deaths, would have been caused by the lack of full protection, the group calculated.
The original research – carried out by HDR UK and Edinburgh University – also indicated that people from minority ethnic groups were also at greater risk of being under-vaccinated and it was decided to investigate the issue more carefully. So the researchers divided the populations of England, Scotland and Wales – figures for Northern Ireland were not included in the latest study – into thirteen different ethnic categories. Apart from the group labeled white British or Irish, where just over 40% of people were under-vaccinated, all other categories had figures above 60%, with several reaching 80%. “It’s a significant discrepancy,” Wood said.
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The discovery that people from ethnic minority groups in particular lack protection against Covid is a major concern for health officials, although Wood sounded a note of caution. “People in the different ethnic groups have different age profiles… and tend to have fewer old people. We also know from our initial research that younger people are generally less likely to take the vaccine. So that could influence our results. Still, it is worrying.
“We were able to calculate these differences using population-wide electronic health records available for Covid-related research. But there is a public health need to look at vaccinations for other conditions, for example the introduction of measles vaccines for different ethnic groups in the UK. There are a large number of similar studies that we now need to look at urgently.”