My vaccine story

People from ethnic minority communities in the UK are more likely to die with COVID-19 according to the Office for National Statistics.

We’ve launched a video campaign to raise awareness of, and address, this point. These videos tell the powerful and compassionate stories of residents in Waltham Forest.

We are collaborating with people in positions of trust from across our borough. We acknowledge the concerns they raise, and challenges we collectively face, within all our communities.

We’re building upon our existing strong relationships with community, faith and voluntary organisations to hear these stories. We will use our existing relationships, and new ones we make, to hear from and engage with others.

If you want to share your COVID story please get in touch by emailing us. We want to hear from residents, to share more stories, to continue the conversation and help keep all Waltham Forest residents safe.

We know in our borough diversity is our strength and with two thirds of residents in Waltham Forest (68%) come from an ethnic minority (other than White British/Irish) compared to the London average of 58% that it is an issue that matters to us all.

As a result of this we know the impact of COVID-19 will be felt more painfully in our borough.

We also know concerns about accepting the COVID-19 vaccine in Waltham Forest are most prevalent within ethnic minority communities. A recent survey suggested 57% of Black respondents were unwilling or undecided regarding vaccination.

With two large-scale vaccination centres in the borough, and pharmacy, GP and community based vaccination centres available we know concerns are not based on access, but on trust.

We need and want to address this. We want to better communicate with and engage everyone, particularly residents of our ethnic minority communities. We want to address historic issues of trust where we can, and tackle misinformation that is currently shared within the borough.

We need to improve public trust and we know this won’t happen overnight. But what we do achieve will help increase vaccine uptake, and that will help reduce the number of people becoming seriously ill.