One in three Londoners unvaxxed?

[JanisMoplin]

I saw this stat whiz by on Twitter, but could not find a source. If true, can anyone tell me why? Is it because London has a larger proportion of the young and children? It is alarming.

I live in outer London in a borough that has high levels of social deprivation and just looking at the stats, 63% are fully vaccinated and 69.4% have had a first dose, and only 27% a booster.

I think vaccine hesitancy is definitely an issue here and the local council is working hard to deal with that with various campaigns on social media, pop up information stands in shopping areas and leaflets through doors. I suspect there are also lots of people here who are just falling through the cracks and not registered with a GP - quite a lot of HMOs and others in vulnerable housing. Areas with high numbers of immigrants from other countries also reflect the vaccine hesitancy in their home countries - Eastern European countries for example have much more distrust in governments which is reflected in not trusting the vaccines.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 yep that happens. My SIL is still registered to the London GP though, she has been registered since birth! Most of my uni friends did not deregister from their GP even though they moved back home. It has been years. My cousin studied at UCL and did not even close her UK bank account, it has been 10 years but I bet she is still registered to some GP in Warren Street.

@Splann

I had a surprising conversation with a friend who lives in a very affluent area of London. She hasn’t been vaccinated as she “just hasn’t had the time to book it”. She also didn’t want to get ill from it and have to take time off. She says lots her social group are the same and think that if enough “other people” have had the vax it will mean there is no need to get it for themselves. I was pretty but she assured(!?) me that there are lots of people she knows that think this way. It was a shockingly entitled attitude that made me think quite differently about her.

So your statistics don’t surprise me one bit.

I'm so intrigued by this! It seems hugely social circle dependant? What area do you mind me asking, and what kind of work/background?

For Central London (e.g. Chelsea, Westminster) lawyers/ policy/ government /professional/ finance in 20s and 30s most people I know have even had a booster, despite booking not being open for most of them. My office is something like 90% fully vaccinated now, there are some people I know with needle phobias who just got their second (in their 20s) but I literally don't know anybody not on their 2nd at least.

@Porridgeislife I didn't access my GP's services for 3 years, they kept me on. My SIL is still registered to her London GP even though she has immigrated...

I live in London. The people I know who are not vaccinated are a mixture of male and female, young and old, black and white.

@Porridgeislife at the same time, a lot of people also move to London and also register for GPs. But they keep the old people on the books. My MIL has all 4 of her kids registered to the GP but in reality only 2 are in London...

@Flowers500

I've been looking into this online as I was really intrigued, it's fascinating how little idea we actually have at the moment of the London population. The data splashed in The Times is apparently using population estimates from around 2010-11, there's GLA analysis that shows completely different vaccination rates for London:

twitter.com/jdportes/status/1471145178933211144

They don't have exact numbers just graphs but looks like they're saying high 80s or 90s for older people, and at least 75% for everyone over 18

Yes I'd strongly recommend Jonathan Portes, he's been focusing on this issue of inaccuracies in London data for quite a while now

It's mind-boggling that they have no agreed idea how many people currently live in London but as long as that's the case I think all sorts of data needs to be looked at carefully

[quote onlychildhamster]@Porridgeislife at the same time, a lot of people also move to London and also register for GPs. But they keep the old people on the books. My MIL has all 4 of her kids registered to the GP but in reality only 2 are in London...[/quote]
If they’ve been jabbed elsewhere in the UK they’ll have an NHS Covid pass and will be counted as vaccinated.

@Thingstodotoday

“ We really need to stop with the ‘selfish’ accusations now that we know that the vaccine is more about reducing your own individual risk than preventing infection/transmission. It’s not helpful to talk about other people like that. Particularly when many of them have had the virus already.”

Have you not seen the stats on the proportion of Covid patients in hospital that are unvaccinated??
That is what is contributing to the NHS being on its knees at the moment.

Yes. Have you? Are you talking about the actual figures from the ONS reports or the incorrect ones that have been plastered all over the media?

For example, I’m registered in London but live in the home counties as we’re between rental and a house purchase & I don’t have the enthusiasm to find a new GP temporarily.

My GP, who I haven’t seen in person for the better part of 3 years, is still aware I’m vaccinated because my NHS number is linked to my Covid pass.

There's thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of undocumented and transitory people living in London so the figure is probably even higher than one in three!

The dodginess of the local data is actually front and centre in this Times tweet.
11% unvaccinated nationwide, but the highest vaccination figure for any region is 85%? Makes it obvious that something is seriously inaccurate.
twitter.com/thetimes/status/1471072957174890496

I had a surprising conversation with a friend who lives in a very affluent area of London. She hasn’t been vaccinated as she “just hasn’t had the time to book it”. She also didn’t want to get ill from it and have to take time off. She says lots her social group are the same and think that if enough “other people” have had the vax it will mean there is no need to get it for themselves. I was pretty shock but she assured(!?) me that there are lots of people she knows that think this way. It was a shockingly entitled attitude that made me think quite differently about her.

Your friend is a moron.

Is it to do with London's lower than average age? And these people not getting vaccines? Or in some cases vaccines not yet accessible to them, e.g. boosters?

I'm in Haringey. The queue situation is very variable...like the same place could be an hour plus queue or no queue at all and you don't know till you get there. I booked a booster two weeks in advance, got there on the day, waited 45 minutes and only moved about forward about 10% in a queue for people with appointments. Had to give up and rebook. I don't know what the situation is elsewhere but in my area if you don't have the flexibility to just turn up and wait as long as it takes, getting vaccinated is not as simple as it needs to be.

Dd was done quickly and easily in Ealing yesterday

@CUniverse

And of those, there are an awful lot who have bought their vaccination status too. So it is even less

I really highly doubt a significant percentage of people have brought their vaccination status. I would imagine it's vanishingly few people who do this.

@4pmwinetimebebeh

I have no time patience of sympathy left for the unvaccinated. I have a friend who won’t be vaccinated- I won’t be seeing them again until the bulk of covid is over.

Don't blame you. Can't be vaccinated is one thing. Refusing to be vaccinated is another.

People also are removed from GP registers once they haven’t accessed its services after a certain number of months. It’s a central requirement as GPs are paid a fixed sum per registered patient

Really? I've not been a GP for three years. I'm still registered. I don't think it's unusual for people to not need healthcare if they are young and healthy. I didn't go once between the ages of 11-20 because I was very well, and all vaccinations etc were given at school.

Do people really ask each other if they're vaccinated? Beyond the first vaccination, it doesn't come up much.

@Flowers500 slightly older age group in their 30s and 40s. Lots in the arts industries - fine arts, museums, classical music world, theatre, film industry. They live in Chelsea, Richmond, Ealing - all sort of West London.

@DillonPanthersTexas you are not wrong. It was a strange conversation almost as though she thought everyone she knew had a similar mindset. I was feeling sad that I hadn’t seen her since 2019 but I’m not now!

In one specific industry there are hundreds who have done this, you are naive to it.

This thing is, no one speaks about it unless they know you're 'in', as you can imagine. I even know a few who have bought not only for themselves, but for family members too.

Now with the need for a 3rd, some have already 'bought' their booster even. The way it is done is so clever, they can never be found out.

I'm a GP in a deprived area of London. I'd say a third seems about right maybe more. Loads of my patients don't want it.

Makes sense. It's diverse and deprived.
Top 5 areas of London omicron are :
Southwark, Lambeth, Hackney and city London, Islington, Lewisham.

We know from March 2020 that some black and some Asian population were more opposed to the idea of vaccinations that others.

They've had drives before, was it late last year? to get some areas of Birmingham and Manchester and other cities where the take up of vaccination was so low, for various reasons, poverty and high number of people living in shared accommodation, inability to get time off work, or be able to get to the vaccination centre, plus more reasons given by the mayor? Of that area.

that's why they had to make a specific drive to try and get populations of those areas to uptake the vaccination.

But What are the stats for the why the uptake is still so low?

@AnotherOneWithNoGoodName

In one specific industry there are hundreds who have done this, you are naive to it.

This thing is, no one speaks about it unless they know you're 'in', as you can imagine. I even know a few who have bought not only for themselves, but for family members too.

Now with the need for a 3rd, some have already 'bought' their booster even. The way it is done is so clever, they can never be found out.