People from ethnic minority groups in the UK are twice as likely to be under-vaccinated against Covid-19 compared with individuals who have a white British background.
That is the striking finding of a study carried out by scientists at Health Data Research UK, which indicates that people from these groups are more likely to need hospital treatment or risk death from Covid because they lack full protection against the disease.
“The results are very clear,” said Prof Angela Wood, of the HDR UK and Cambridge University. “Using data for 67 million people from England, Scotland and Wales, we found that only about 40% of those of white backgrounds had not had their full Covid vaccinations by the beginning of this year, while 80% of individuals from some ethnic groups were under-vaccinated. It is a really striking difference.”
Those who had under-vaccination levels of 80% included people from Black African, Black Caribbean and Asian Pakistani backgrounds. Others, including those in Asian Chinese and Asian Indian groups, were about 60% under-vaccinated.
“A person is deemed to be under-vaccinated if they had missed any of the Covid jabs that were recommended for their age group,” Wood told the Observer.
The discovery of the high vulnerability of ethnic groups to Covid comes as the health services prepare for an expected rise in cases with winter approaching. Doctors and pharmacies are already offering jabs to eligible individuals such as residents in care homes and people over 65.
The research on ethnic groups and Covid vaccines is a follow-up to a study published earlier this year in which scientists collaborated to reveal the take-up of Covid vaccines across Britain. This allowed them to identify the proportion of people who were under-vaccinated by the end of 2022 in England (46%), Northern Ireland (50%), Scotland (33%) and Wales (34%).
“We also found that people who are more likely to be under-vaccinated were male, younger and from more deprived backgrounds,” Wood said.
The consequences of the failure to obtain full vaccination were profound, the study showed. An estimated 7,000 severe Covid outcomes, including hospitalisation and death, would have been triggered by the lack of full protection, the group calculated.
The original study – carried out by the HDR UK and Edinburgh University – also indicated that those in ethnic minority groups were also more at risk of being under-vaccinated and it was decided to look more carefully at the issue. So the researchers split the population of England, Scotland and Wales – Northern Ireland figures were not included in the latest study – into 13 different ethnic categories. Apart from the group labelled white British or Irish, which had just over 40% of people under-vaccinated, all other categories had figures over 60%, while several reached 80%. “It is a substantial discrepancy,” said Wood.
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The discovery that people in ethnic minority groups are particularly lacking in protection against Covid is a major worry for health officials, although Wood sounded a note of caution. “People in the different ethnic groups have different age profiles … and tend to have fewer old people. We also know, from our first study, that younger people, in general, are less likely to take up the vaccine. So that might be influencing our results. Nevertheless, it is worrying.
“We have been able to calculate these differences using whole-population, electronic health records available for Covid-related research. But there is a public health need to look at vaccinations for other conditions, for example, the take up of measles vaccines for different ethnic groups across the UK. There are a host of similar studies that we now need to look at as a matter of urgency.”