Covid vaccine uptake higher in some parts of Sheffield, says health chief

Director of Public Health Greg Fell said there would be a higher uptake of the vaccine in Dore and Totley than Firth Park.

He also said hoaxes about the vaccine on social media, which particularly targeted black and minority ethnic people, needed to be disputed.

Coun Jayne Dunn, who owns a beauty salon, told a scrutiny meeting: “I have two BAME clients who are very sceptical about the vaccine because of information circulating on social media.”

Mr Fell said community leaders and voluntary groups played a vital role in helping spread health messages.

“The voluntary sector can get to places the NHS can’t. There’s no point wheeling me out to Burngreave to be an advocate, we need to ask community leaders to help.

“Tens of thousands of people have received their first dose but there’s a danger that we focus on the number of vaccines given when we need to find people who are less likely to go for a vaccine.

“We need to do health promotions to maximise the uptake in the groups we historically don’t find easy to reach.

“I’m aware there’s a lot of fears about the safety of the vaccine on social media and some people have very legitimate concerns which we need to address head on.

“There are plenty of hoaxes on social media and I’m not going head to head with anti-vaxxers but we need to push out that this is a safe and effective vaccine.

“Coverage will be really high in Dore and Totley and really low in Firth Park and that’s not acceptable.”

Mr Fell said there was currently no data on which demographic of people had been vaccinated but there was a push to get people registered with a GP.

“We’re making specific efforts to get to the homeless and drug using population and there are quite a lot of people among the Slovak community who are not registered with a GP so this is something we need to be aware of.”

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In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.