David Lammy urges black community to take Covid-19 vaccine

16 January 2021, 18:57

David Lammy's powerful monologue on black skepticism for Covid vaccine

Following a report claiming over 70% of black people don't want to be vaccinated, David Lammy pleaded with people to come to their better sense.

David Lammy addressed the historical precedence for medical skepticism in the black community.

"It is the experience of the black community that there have been horrible experiments done on black people on the continent of Africa over the years," he began.

David explained that because of atrocities committed against black people in the past, "there's an understanding in the black community and a real concern about new medications coming forward."

He added that such widespread skepticism is dangerous: "We know that disproportionately black, asian and minority ethnic people are more likely to die of Covid-19 in the UK."

He pointed out that refusal to take the vaccine could be extremely harmful to BAME communities.

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"There's a double whammy here – more likely to die, more likely to die if you don't take the vaccine, but a lot of hesitancy."

David said that despite this, he pleads with minority communities to "take this vaccine."

He expressed the gravity of the issue, noting that "some of those anti-vaxx messages are deliberately being targeted at black, asian and minority ethnic communities."

David issued a warning implicating the whole UK in the issue: "If ethnic minorities don't take the vaccine...the whole country is not going to be in the position to get the immunity required."

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