Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

NHS to enlist 'sensible' celebrities to persuade people to take coronavirus vaccine

NHS to enlist 'sensible' celebrities to persuade people to take coronavirus vaccine

Exclusive: People who are ‘known and loved’ will front campaign amid fears of low take-up

NHS bosses plan to enlist celebrities and “influencers” with big social media followings in a major campaign to persuade people to have a Covid vaccine amid fears of low take-up.

Ministers and NHS England are drawing up a list of “very sensible” famous faces in the hope that their advice to get immunised would be widely trusted, the Guardian has learned.

Health chiefs are particularly worried about the number of people who are still undecided, and about vaccine scepticism among NHS staff. “There will be a big national campaign [to drive take-up],” said one source with knowledge of the plans. “NHS England are looking for famous faces, people who are known and loved. It could be celebrities who are very sensible and have done sensible stuff during the pandemic.”

No names are thought to have been confirmed. But NHS communications experts suggested privately that the footballer Marcus Rashford, who is widely admired for his child food poverty campaign, which has forced two government U-turns, and members of the royal family would be ideal recruits. Politicians will not be used, it is understood. It comes as:

* The prime minister tried to quell a rebellion over tougher coronavirus tiers ahead of a Commons vote on Tuesday, telling 70 sceptical Tory MPs from the Covid Recovery Group “there is every reason to hope and believe that the worst is nearly behind us” as he called for “unity and resolve”.

* The latest React study from Imperial College London suggested a 30% fall in coronavirus infections in England during the second national lockdown, with cases dropping by more than half in the north-west and north-east, according to tests on 105,000 volunteers.

* The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, warned, however, that there could be a third wave of the pandemic if the right balance is not struck on restrictions and did not rule out a third national lockdown.

Expectation is growing that the first of three potentially promising vaccinesPfizer/BioNTech, of which the UK has secured 40m doses – is set for regulatory approval within days, allowing hospitals to start immunising their frontline health workers as soon as 7 December, as revealed by the Guardian on Friday.

The government has secured 100m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and has asked the regulator to assess it for emergency deployment. A further 2m doses of the US Moderna vaccine have also been ordered, bringing its total to 7m for the UK. All three vaccines involve two doses received several weeks apart.

Meanwhile, an internal NHS briefing paper shows that airline cabin crew, firefighters and the jobless are being targeted as part of a huge team of vaccinators being assembled, trained and paid £11.20 an hour to administer the jabs.

Under the slogan “Your NHS needs you”, the recruitment campaign aimed at enlisting “tens of thousands” of extra staff will stress that vaccines “will be our best defence against the virus alongside effective social distancing, wearing a mask and washing your hands” and that vaccinators will be playing a vital role by immunising “millions of at-risk people”.

Public trust in vaccines has risen in most of Europe in the past five years, with the largest survey of global attitudes to vaccinations suggesting that just 7% of Britons would not accept a Covid-19 vaccine in March. According to the findings in the Lancet, this rose to 11% in June and 14% in July, however.

For the NHS campaign to tackle Covid scepticism, officials plan to use doctors who often appear on television and radio discussing health issues, because of their profile and the trust they are assumed to already have with the public. They will also deploy other “influencers” who are popular on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Religious leaders are being asked to help persuade adherents to their faith that vaccination is good for them, their family and the country as a whole. They are seen as important ways of getting pro-immunisation messages to people of black, Asian and minority ethnic origin in particular, amid concern about potential take-up in some communities.

In Yorkshire, staff from Bradford Royal Infirmary are working with local religious and community leaders to devise ways to encourage the city’s large Asian population to have the jab.

The NHS and Public Health England are also drawing up parallel plans to convince the health service’s 1.4m-strong workforce in England to get vaccinated amid signs that a significant proportion may shun it.

Jacqueline Totterdell, chief executive of St George’s hospital trust in London, told a seminar run by the Health Service Journal: “I think there is a lot of anxiety [among staff], and some of the polls we’ve done around south-west London show that as little as 50% of people are willing just to have it without any [assurance about its safety]. We might all think people might be rushing to have it, but actually we might find that’s not quite the case.”

Thea Stein, the boss of Leeds community healthcare NHS trust, told the same event: “People who know about vaccines, know about side-effects, feel they don’t know enough about the potential side-effects of the vaccine [for Covid] … they feel anxious and uncertain.”

Experts say that overall take-up would need to be anything from 60% to 75%, depending on how effective the vaccines prove to be.

The British Medical Association, which represents Britain’s doctors, said those deemed a priority to receive Covid jabs because of their poor underlying health would need to be reassured that vaccines are safe, to counter apprehension about taking them.

“It is especially important that those most at risk of serious illness, and the people around them, are vaccinated. Such individuals will need evidence-based assurance of vaccine safety and efficacy in their specific group,” said Dr Penelope Toff, co-chair of the BMA’s public health medicine committee.

“It will be vital that there are clear culturally-tailored communications delivered by trusted local and community leaders, and targeted at the most vulnerable and harder-to-reach communities, and that it is made easy for these populations to access vaccination.”

Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia who specialises in infectious diseases, said famous faces could help “people hear the truth and understand the message”.

“Some form of campaign will be essential, even if it is only to advise people how to get vaccinated,” he said. “But with the rise in recent years of vaccine scepticism and the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines then some form of campaign will be needed to counter this.”

The government declined to release details of the campaign. A government spokesperson said: “An effective vaccine will be the best way to protect the most vulnerable from coronavirus and the biggest breakthrough since the pandemic began, potentially saving thousands of lives.

Vaccines will only be authorised for use if they have met the strict safety and effectiveness standards of the UK’s medicines regulator.”

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
0:00
0:00
Open
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
0:00
0:00
Close
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker to Return to AIA as Non-Executive Chair
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on International Students at Harvard
Trump Proposes Travel Ban on 'Uncontrolled' Countries
Global News Roundup: From Ukraine's strategic military strikes and Russia's demands and Tensions Escalate in Ukraine, to serious legal issues faced by Britons in Bali and Trump's media criticism, the latest developments highlight a turbulent landscape
Majority of French Voters View Macron's Presidency as a Failure
Hungary Partners with China to Boost Electric Vehicle Production
‘Vibe Coding’ Emerges as the New DIY Trend
AI Pioneer Yoshua Bengio Warns Models Can Deceive Users
Big Four Firms Rush to Create AI Auditing Systems
Musk’s xAI Pursues $113 Billion Valuation in New Share Sale
Walmart Increases Revenue Despite Shrinking Workforce
Hims & Hers Plans UK and EU Launch of Replica Obesity Drugs
Toyota to Acquire Supplier in $33 Billion Buyout
U.S. Reduces Military Presence in Syria
Trump Demands Iran End All Uranium Enrichment in Nuclear Talks
BlackRock-Backed Fintech Aims to Become Europe’s Charles Schwab
China Accuses US of Violating Trade Truce
Europe's Strategic Push to Challenge Dollar Dominance
Iran Warns Europe Against Politicizing UN Nuclear Report
France Implements Nationwide Outdoor Smoking Ban to Protect Children
Macron Lightheartedly Addresses Viral 'Shove' Incident in Indonesia
German Chancellor Merz Keeps Putin Guessing on Missile Strategy
Mandelson Criticizes UK's 'Fetish' for Abandoning EU Regulations
Dutch government falls as far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Eurozone Inflation Falls Below ECB Target to 1.9%
Blackstone and Rivals Diverge on Private Equity Strategy
Call for a New Chapter in Globalisation Emerges
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
×