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As profoundly skeptical, indeed suspicious as I am of this British Govt, this morning on Today, @nadhimzahawi, Under-Secretary of State for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment, struck me as sincere in gravity of his fears re: risks of low vaccine take up among minorities. I'm worried.
I know from first hand conversations I've had that the degree of distrust of UK authorities among MANY people in MOST of Britain's minority communities is extremely serious. Post Windrush & the Brexit betrayals (eg. of Restaurant trade re: Overseas Chef visas), trust is VERY low.
As TV reports of @darshnasoni & work of @ProfKevinFenton, among others, have explored in robust detail, both the management & messaging around Covid in UK as particularly ref to minority communities, has been riddled with serious errors &, arguably, criminal level of negligence.
There's not only the danger that Minority communities will continue to be disproportionately decimated by Covid-19, as they have been so far, but also that a great deal of potential exists for Far Right forces to exploit any lack of take-up of Vaccine among our communities.
We need a massive effort to address this. I don't know what that looks like, others are more expert than me, but I do know that we urgently need to do something. We need to come together, across our communities, across Govt & the NHS & the Media, and tackle this in a MASSIVE way.
I know many people are doing what you can but it feels like we need a real concerted push. So @nadhimzahawi - what's the plan? How can we help? And friends who work in Arts & Media - what more can we do? @thenitinsawhney @TherealNihal @courttianewland @itsanitarani @bobbyfriction
