Sadiq Khan wants to limit indoor mixing but why is he not addressing the low vaccine rates in London instead?

[Jobconfused]

In some areas of London the vaccine update is so low (think less than 60% of first dose and less than 20% booster), and significantly below the national average. Why is Kahn not addressing this and asking for further restrictions instead? He had the whole of 2021 to work on increasing the uptake amongst the London communities and now he is declaring a state of emergency. I don’t get it. What am I missing

@CurtainTroubles *interested in the stats

Puzzled "In my east midlands city they tried using HCPs who matched the demographic of each area to go door to door, and local councillors went berserk - apparently even trying to approach the community was racist. The HCPs were vilified too, and told they were bringing shame on their communities, so sadly the initiative was dropped"

I sensed they were edging towards that here and it pissed me off. Being targeted as someone they think won't have a vaccine for demographic related reasons just makes me shudder. I"0'm often told "my" community is refusing it.

I was in one lf the earliest groups but by Feb andnow, I saw numerous posters, there are tons of clinics, lots of buses, lots of walk ins..., heasing into central London, there were big events at places like the Tate and even nightclubs, all promoted by Khan. I think he's done a lot.

I really disliked him goimg on TV and saying "ask your friends neighbours if they've had the vaccine". That's way too far.

@bumbleymummy

Also, Sadiq is just generally useless. He can't even tell you what a woman is, so I don't expect him to be any help here either.

This made me snort

It didn't make me snort. Does this have to be shoehorned into everything?

Sorry for typos

That’s fine sooty. We don’t all have to have the same sense of humour. Not sure why I deserve a post to tell me though

@bumbleymummy

That’s fine sooty. We don’t all have to have the same sense of humour. Not sure why I deserve a post to tell me though

Not meant to have a dig at you, I'm sorry. Just annoyed because defining a woman isn't relevant to the thread but that poster shoehorned it in anyway..

That’s ok, thanks for the apology. Was probably being a bit over sensitive myself! Having far too late a night having to wait up.

He’s doing what he can, I thought he was brave to acknowledge the cultural element. My husband works in a hospital and sees the ethic break down of all the people in his hospital with Covid. They are nearly all unvaccinated and from ethnic minorities. Most people won’t acknowledge there is more vaccine hesitancy in certain ethnic groups for fear of being labelled racist but it is well known to be a reason behind the statistics in culturally diverse places like London

@Jobconfused

I get that it’s too late now to address the low vaccination rate but he had the whole of the year - I also live in one of those areas and have seen no measures to promote the vaccine. The emergency should have been declared over the low vaccine uptake before even getting to this situation.

Love how you are trying to blame the Mayor of London for this when the vaccine rollout is the government's area.

I agree that Johnson/Hancock/Javid could have done a lot more to try to improve vaccine take up rates, but we all know this government is useless and we are where we are.

I agree, I'm a Londoner too and it literally is the giant elephant in the room.
I don't think much more lockdown and lack of mixing wil be tolerated. He's really got to look at either boosting the vaccination rates in London or locking down the unvaccinated and heavily restricting their movements to protect themselves and others.

Come on

It's not about blaming him for the lack of uptake. He is the mayor and needs to be using his role to improve vaccination on London.

@Tillyvonpantsalo

It's not about blaming him for the lack of uptake. He is the mayor and needs to be using his role to improve vaccination on London.

Well he is telling everyone to get the vaccine but as he does not control the NHS budgets, what is it you want him to do exactly? Khan is hosting events and doing continued publicity.

An example: www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/virtual-events-to-discuss-covid-19-vaccines

The government have done very little to tackle low take up in certain areas/communities. This has been a major gap from the start.

It is the same with knife crime - Tories try to blame Khan but they hold the purse strings and cut police numbers.

[quote Changechangychange]Drove past the vaccination centre in Oval today, and there was a massive queue stretching all the way back to the tube station.

You have to remember that

We are facing more restrictions due to Johnson's failed covid 'strategy' (it has to be inverted commas because his strategy was to give vaccines then pretend it was over) - there will be a concerted effort to try to blame anyone else for this. Khan, Sturgeon, Drakeford, Burnham, the public, the NHS, the EU - all of them will get some criticism to try to take the heat off the government for the fact we are in the deep shit due to facing Omicron on top of Delta with insufficient resources for healthcare and weak restrictions.

Haven’t most Londoners had covid? Natural immunity should help with hospitalisations. The 10 day self isolating however will cause the businesses and services to suffer.

"The low vaccination rate in London is being addressed. What makes you think it isn't?"

"The government have done very little to tackle low take up in certain areas/communities. This has been a major gap from the start. "

I agree. I think the Government has done very little.

Not read the whole thread but for the people who know people who were vaccinated abroad- they can now get these recorded in the UK but only at certain centres
www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/tell-nhs-about-coronavirus-vaccinations-abroad/

Low vaccination rates in London can't be fixed in the short term. One jab won't make much difference and would still take a week or two to kick in. Then its months until jab 2.

The issue is right now.

@Jobconfused

I get that it’s too late now to address the low vaccination rate but he had the whole of the year - I also live in one of those areas and have seen no measures to promote the vaccine. The emergency should have been declared over the low vaccine uptake before even getting to this situation.

Have you had your vaccine OP? If you have then you're not the target audience. Some of the people least likely to be vaccinated are the hardest to reach. A social media / public awareness campaign isn't going to do anything apart from make people like you think something is being done. Someone up thread mentioned community leaders who are exactly the kind of influencers that make the difference and this is happening in London.

They have to find ways of targeting the HMO's.

Vaccine busses, similar to the Sexual health busses, no question about registration asked might be an answer.

Not everyone who is unboostered in London is anti-vax!
Exactly! Lots of my London friends still can’t book booster appointments until the new year.

My five London friends who tested positive this week are all triple vaccinated.

@Jobconfused

I think there is more that can be done to persuade those who are on the fence with the vaccine. This isn’t meant to be an anti antivax thread but why is anyone surprised that the infections in London are so high and hospitalisations are rising, given the disproportionately low uptake in London?

Vaccines don't affect the rate of infection though?? Hospitalisation rates maybe, but not rate of infection. You're just as likely as anyone else to catch it whether you've had the vaccine / booster or not. You're just less likely to be seriously ill from it.

We should do like the European countries and have covid passes. Not vaccinated = no access to restaurants, long distance trains, non essential shops, leisure centers, etc.
I bet a good number would change their mind and get vaccinated.