Listeners praise James O'Brien caller's fascinating insight into Covid jab hesitancy
20 April 2021, 14:03 | Updated: 20 April 2021, 14:07
Nurse enlightens James O'Brien on black vaccine hesitancy
Listeners praised this James O'Brien caller's fascinating insight into jab hesitancy amongst ethnic minorities, urging all communities to have the vaccine.
Caller Noris is a black nurse and she phoned in to James O'Brien's show to explain the reason behind vaccine hesitancy amongst some ethnic minorities.
Noris said some people are refusing the vaccine because the "all of a sudden the vaccine has been pushed on us" - however she has taken it because as a nurse she has "seen the death" Covid has caused.
James questioned: "If it's the legacy of racism that makes people suspicious of it, then surely the fact that only 4% of white people over 60 have said no to it is quite a powerful way of undermining the suggestion that there's something dodgy about it?"
Noris responded that the percentage of white people who have taken it "have not had to struggle" the way the number of black people have struggled, clarifying that this struggle equates to a mistrust in authority.
"People are scared, people are running scared of the system," Noris said, "if you have to fight your whole life for something in this system...if you have to fight in England for housing, for schools, for education, for everything...all of a sudden, something they've brought to you on a tray you go 'ummm.'"
James surmised that for people who have had to persevere their whole life to get the same opportunities as others, they are suspicious when "things are handed to them on a plate."
James said, "If one person [has the vaccine] as a result of your intervention and my amplification then we've saved a life today. You do that every day, but it's a big deal for me."
