Yesterday afternoon, the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group met to discuss the Covid-19 vaccination effort, including development, distribution and barriers to delivery.

We were delighted to be joined by the Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi MP, who gave a keynote speech noting that we must confront historical inequalities to build trust at the local level and engage with communities that have endured long standing barriers to engagement with medical services.

Ben Osborn, Managing Director of Pfizer UK, spoke about the scale of scientific efforts for Covid-19 vaccine development. Partnership and collaboration have formed and will continue to form the cornerstone to safe and effective delivery.

Dr Sarah Tade pointed out that to look at issues around vaccine uptake, we must first address the health inequalities underpinning the hesitance. Mortality risk of Covid-19 for ethnic minority communities is twice as high, echoing longstanding inequalities within the healthcare system.

Then Dr Shehla Imtiaz-Umer of the British Islamic Medical Association discussed the work they are doing on cross-media awareness campaigns to provide concise and factual information on vaccines from a trusted source and to counter longstanding mistrust.

Many thanks to our speakers, chair and audience members for engaging conversation around long-lasting changes to the NHS. You can stay up to date on the work of the APHG on our website.

Photo: Nadhim Zahawi MP, used under Creative Commons 3.0