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

There are posters all over London saying get vaccinated/boosted. Walk in clinics etc too.

So your statement is opinion then and not evidence based? Fair enough.

I hate to be cynical, but it's easier to suggest the Government tightens covid restrictions than to take action to increase London's vaccination rates, which he would be accountable for, is measurable and will make him look bad if / when he fails. Kahn isn't very good at delivery, and doesn't want to set himself up to fail.

The risk is very small as omicron is a mild illness for many people

FFS how many times? It is the small percentage for whom it is NOT mild that we are concerned about.

People are either deliberately misrepresenting the issue or really, really need to engage their brains.

@bumbleymummy

So your statement is opinion then and not evidence based? Fair enough.

hahahaha 'evidence based' - am sure all your posts are peer reviewed too?

@Tealightsandd

Your A, B, C, and D are irrelevant. They are a small proportion of London - out of 9 million inhabitants. The majority of Londoners are permanent, full-time, and have either just one home or (increasingly) no home.

Very obviously absent part-time residents aren't relevant to the current very high level of infections, hospitalisations, and staff sickness in London.

Younger population in London than elsewhere. Effect on vax rate is real but not a specific cause for concern.

Proportionally young when there's 9 million people. There are still more elderly in London than anywhere else in the UK. More than a million. And London's lower take up rate goes across all age groups.

The wealthy overseas based second home owners are irrelevant to the current situation of high number of cases and hospitalisations in London. They're a small percentage of the 9 million inhabitants.

AB and D (wealthy second home owners, transient population and people vaccinated overseas) are not a huge proportion of the London population but they're a few percent: substantial enough to make the difference between London vaccinated proportions being a bit lower than everywhere else, and being a baffling ten percent lower. Bear in mind that Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, the wealthiest boroughs in the country, are right at the bottom of the vaccination tables.

Yes there are a lot of young people in London because it's a big place, but we're talking about share of the population. Even if everyone in the UK was equally happy to get vaccinated, the cities with younger populations would have a lower proportion vaccinated than Bournemouth and Worthing.

I'm not denying that London could do with higher vaccination rates, but the headline figures are misleading in some ways, and need interrogating in order to work out where efforts are best targeted. We don't want to spend money sending people to knock door to door on the empty mansion flats of Westminster.

They really aren't enough to make a substandard difference.

Kensington and Chelsea, and separately Westminster, are both boroughs of extremes. You see, as well as the (comparative minority) of super rich part-timers, there is a still a lot of social housing (and a lot of deprivation).

Remember that Kensington and Chelsea (which is the most densely populated London borough) is the borough of Grenfell.

We don't want to spend money sending people to knock door to door on the empty mansion flats of Westminster.

The absentee second home owners aren't the people testing positive in London, nor are they the people filling London's hospitals.

They're also irrelevant to the fact that one third of London's NHS staff are off sick.

The only relevance is that the huge number of second and empty homes blighting London (the epicentre of the public health housing and homelessness emergency) has gone some way towards contributing towards the increased socioeconomic risk to Covid for many Londoners.

Nobody is denying that London infection numbers are appalling - the fact that they're having to add a new colour to the MSOA maps because they need a higher band tells you that.

But this is a thread about vaccination rates. The published vaccination rates by region make it look as if London's vaccination take up is radically different from every other region, a huge step change, which suggests a very simple explanation why infection rates are so high. But that's misleading for a variety of reasons and we need to understand what's really going on in order to address it.

London is:

• younger
• more ethinically diverse
• more people who do not speak English
• more people who move a lot for work
• more unregistered people

Some areas are full of pensioners, so have very high vax rates.

@rrhuth

London is:

• younger
• more ethinically diverse
• more people who do not speak English
• more people who move a lot for work
• more unregistered people

Some areas are full of pensioners, so have very high vax rates.

True - but London's vaccination rates are lower than the rest of the country across all age groups. Including the over 80s.

Even the boroughs with the highest vaccine take-up rate (I think, Bromley?) is still lower than the rest of the UK. And if it is Bromley, that is a part of London with fewer second and empty homes than other areas.

What's the access to vaccination like in London? Perhaps if people have to take a bus or tube it puts them off especially if elderly or physically disabled, or if they don't speak English or know the city well it could be quite daunting.

@containsnuts

What's the access to vaccination like in London? Perhaps if people have to take a bus or tube it puts them off especially if elderly or physically disabled, or if they don't speak English or know the city well it could be quite daunting.

Personally I have found it very, very easy. I do not speak for everyone though. Many weekend appmts and walk ins.

I've also found it very easy to get vaccinated in London.

@containsnuts

What's the access to vaccination like in London? Perhaps if people have to take a bus or tube it puts them off especially if elderly or physically disabled, or if they don't speak English or know the city well it could be quite daunting.

No it’s not daunting.

There are vaccination sites everywhere, 7 days a week, easy access, they provide phone interpreting if someone does not speak English.

Let’s stop making these excuses.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

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

How and by whom? The Mayor?

He's put his name to various initiatives over the months of the pandemic.

It doesn't seem to have had the hoped-for traction.

And of course 'limit indoors mixing' and 'get vacci ated' aren't mutually exclusive. It's right he does both.

The queues had gone from at my most local walk-in by yesterday (pharmacy I go past frequently). Told DS and he went and got his booster without needing to queue. So yes, there might be times/places where the weight of numbers means queueing or other delay, but it's not inevitable

I think while access to vaccination might be very easy, Londoners are so more likely to have multiple jobs and caring responsibilities so vaccine appointments get put in the back burner. All about priorities but if you work unsociable long hours to pay the rent, it's easy to procrastinate. They found that when they put in a van giving out jabs in a deprived area in brent it was easy.

For my first appointment, I had to take 2 hours off work due to the queue even though the Vax centre was 1 mile away. Easy to do if you were WFH.

Second Vax appointment was on a Sunday

Third Vax appointment was at 5:50 pm but I had to pay for a cab to get there in time after work. Maybe not everyone can afford a cab even if it's £6...

If the mobile van worked well in deprived areas, do more of this. And also put them or pop up vaccination sites in locations with high footfall or concentration of unvaccinated, e.g. supermarket carparks, sports stadiums, community centres, station forecourts. Partner with local businesses, e.g. voucher for a free coffee / burger / drink / £5 off supermarket shop, entry into a prize draw. Enlist celebrities who identify with locations or communities with a high % of unvaccinated to push the message.

The Mayor could be more proactive in leading the effort to get more Londoners vaccinated.