UK Government Ministers urged to do more to break down covid vaccine barriers and launch war on antivax misinformation and fake news

The last few days have shown us that Mother Nature can still rustle up a bitingly cold winter, as temperatures plunged below freezing, bringing down power lines and cutting off communities from vital goods and services as roads became unpassable.
By YP Comment
Published 22nd Dec 2022, 09:26 BST
UK Government ministers are being urged to do more to break down barriers to covid vaccination and to ward off antivax misinformation by being more proactive in communicating the science and real world benefits behind the vaccinesUK Government ministers are being urged to do more to break down barriers to covid vaccination and to ward off antivax misinformation by being more proactive in communicating the science and real world benefits behind the vaccines
UK Government ministers are being urged to do more to break down barriers to covid vaccination and to ward off antivax misinformation by being more proactive in communicating the science and real world benefits behind the vaccines

Though temperatures are forecast to climb in the coming days, this has been quite literally a cold, hard reminder that British winters bring with them myriad challenges, not least increased pressure on the NHS in all its forms – from acute to social care.

And so a new report published by IPPR North, which offers Ministers both encouragement and ideas on how to break down barriers when it comes to the take-up of vaccinations should be welcomed in the spirit it is intended.

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Born out of concern for an already ailing National Health Service, the research paper offers a multitude of options for improving take-up of Covid vaccines in order to head off at the pass the overwhelming and potential collapse of the service.

As well as urging the Government, local authorities, health trusts and the like to increase the volume and prevalence of the message when it comes to the importance of getting the vaccine, both from a personal perspective and that of the NHS, the report urges Ministers to improve the quality of the information out there for people to find by doing more to tackle disinformation and fake news.

If, as the YouGov polling suggests, one in five adults really are still afraid of spending time in public spaces because of the threat of falling ill with Covid, it is clear that a vulnerability exists which those with nefarious intentions will seek to exploit.

That cannot be allowed to happen, because ill-founded doubts about the benefits of high quality immunisation have real world impacts for everyone, but especially children as parents struggle to know who they can and cannot trust.

Related topics:Government ministersGovernmentNHS