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Nepali TAKE THE COVID-19 VACCINE CAMPAIGN
Take the COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign is a non-profit community-based campaign to encourage people to take the vaccine
(1) To provide information about each of the COVID-19 vaccines approved in the UK.
(2) To provide answers to common vaccine related questions.
(3) To provide a platform and leadership role for dialogue on
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
(4) To campaign and encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Taken the vaccine? Share your story
The largest vaccination programme in British history.
Is the vaccine safe?
Why should I take the vaccine?
Have the vaccines been tested?
How was the vaccine released so fast?
Is the vaccine safe?
Why should I take the vaccine?
Have the vaccines been tested?
How was the vaccine released so fast?
Why Should You Care?
The only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is through vaccination.
Experts estimate that to break the chain of transmission, in excess of 80% of the population must be vaccinated to stop the pandemic. When enough of the population is vaccinated, the virus has a hard time finding new people to infect, and the pandemic starts dying out.
The number of people who need to be vaccinated is known as the critical vaccination level. Once a population reaches that number, you get herd immunity. Herd immunity is when there are so many vaccinated people that an infected person can hardly find anyone who could get infected, and so the virus cannot spread to other people. This is very important to protect people who cannot get vaccinated.
%
of the population must be vaccinated to stop the pandemic
In a recent YouGov survey, it was found that one in five of those surveyed in the UK said they were unlikely to take the Pfizer vaccine. The reasons varied from those being opposed to vaccinations in general to those who did not trust the vaccine or believe it to be safe. Even from the 67% of those who said they were likely to take it, whilst 42% said they were ‘very likely’ to take it, 25% said they were ‘fairly likely’.
Vaccine hesitancy is where people with access to vaccines delay or refuse vaccination. Anecdotal evidence increasingly suggests that people from a range of backgrounds, particularly those from minority communities, are hesitant of taking the vaccine and some refusing to do so when offered.
Research indicates that groups that frequently encounter discrimination in their everyday lives have a larger degree of hesitancy towards vaccines. For example, black and minority ethnic parents in England are three times more hesitant than their white counterparts towards COVID-19 vaccine for their children and themselves (Bell et al., 2020).
Some of the reasons provided by ‘refusers’ include:
I don’t know if it’s fully safe – the vaccine has been developed very fast, and/or there are side effects which I am worried about
I want to ‘wait and see’ what happens with others who take it before I do
Other theories – the real purpose of the vaccination effort is to track and control the population, and/or that a vaccine has only been developed to make money for pharmaceutical companies
The World Health Organization recently listed vaccine hesitancy as one of its top 10 biggest threats to global health.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the UK
Deaths from COVID-19 in the UK
What Is COVID-19?
- COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). It was first reported in the UK in December 2019.
- Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
- The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is to be well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. Protect yourself and others from infection by washing your hands, wearing a face mask and keeping at least 2 metres distance from others.
- The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow).
The Approved Vaccines
To date, the following vaccines have been approved as safe by the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA):
Oxford/AstraZeneca
100 million doses
Pfizer/BioNTech
40 million doses
Moderna
17 million doses
Take the COVID-19 Vaccine
Stories
Anita Rozenthorne
91 year old
Dr Henna Anwar
NHS GP
Dr Koyes Ahmed
NHS Urgent Care GP
Get The Vaccine
You should wait until you are invited to take the vaccine and should not call your GP. If an appointment has already been offered by your GP, you can choose which appointment suits you best.
The NHS has also opened large-scale Vaccination Centres capable of delivering thousands of the life-saving jabs each week, which are dotted across the country. Letters are being sent out to those who live up to a 45-minute drive from one of the centres, inviting them to book an appointment.
Hundreds more GP-led and hospital services are in the process of being opened along with pharmacy-led pilot sites across the country.
The centres are an additional option for people to book an appointment at centres through the national booking service online or over the phone. If it is not convenient for you, you can instead be jabbed at one of your local vaccination centres.
Your Questions
Can COVID-19 vaccines cause irreversible side effects?
Can COVID-19 cause irreversible side effects?
No patient has so far suffered from irreversible side effects – in clinical trials or in the population. This misconception was spread by misreading a presentation which actually said 3,000 of those vaccinated suffered with temporary and reversible side effects.
All medicines have the potential to cause side effects – even paracetamol. This needs to be weighed up against the harm caused by the disease.
Do the vaccines contain aborted foetal cells?
Do the vaccines contain aborted foetal cells?
The UK approved vaccines do not contain foetal cells. Some vaccines originally used very special foetal cells to grow the virus many decades ago. The original cells were the only option at the time. These cells are not present in current vaccines.
Are the vaccines being used to chip and track the population?
Are vaccines being used to chip and track the population?
Vaccines do not contain any chips or trackers for surveillance. Independent authorities across the world from countries that compete with each other have approved the vaccines and not found any microchips.
The reality is that there are far easier ways to track the population – mobile phones, bank cards etc., than biological trackers.
Why were pregnant women and children not included in the clinical trials?
Why were pregnant women and children not included in the clinical trials?
Pregnant women and children are not usually included in initial trials. The current COVID-19 vaccines are not recommended for most children at this stage. The guidance for pregnant women is to decide based on individual risk. This does not mean it is unsafe in these groups.
It is reflective and a sign of the safety precautions undertaken.
Do the vaccines modify your DNA?
Do the vaccines modify your DNA?
The UK approved vaccines cannot change your DNA.
The Pfizer / BionTech and Moderna vaccines use mRNA to instruct our cells to make a piece of the coronavirus’s hallmark spike protein in order to spark an immune system response. Once the mRNA does that, our cells break it down and get rid of it.
Once I get the vaccine, do I still have to wear face masks or practice social distancing?
Once I get vaccinated, do I need to still wear masks or practice social distancing?
Even if you get the vaccine, you should continue to wear a mask around others, wash your hands and practice social distancing. There two reasons for this.
All of the approved vaccines require doses to be given weeks apart to achieve the best possible immunity. When you get your first dose, you do not become immediately immune. It takes at least a week to 10 days for your body to begin to develop antibodies, and then those antibodies continue to increase over the next several weeks.
These vaccines were developed and tested for their ability to prevent severe illness and death from COVID-19. It is not clear whether they also protect against asymptomatic infection and spread. There will be ongoing studies to evaluate this question, but it will be some time before we actually know. So, after you get the vaccine, you should still take steps to protect other people who have not been vaccinated yet.
COVID-19’s survival rate is so high, why do I need a vaccine?
COVID-19’s survival rate is so high, so why do I need to be vaccinated?
It is true that most people who get COVID-19 are able to recover. But it’s also true that some people develop severe complications. So far, nearly 2 million people around the world have died from COVID-19 – and that does not account for people who survived but needed to be hospitalised. Because the disease can damage the lungs, heart and brain, it may also cause long-term health problems that experts are still working to understand – this is called “long” COVID.
Getting vaccinated also protects those around you. Even if COVID-19 doesn’t make you very sick, you could pass it onto someone else who might be more severely affected. Widespread vaccination protects populations, including those who are most at risk and those who can’t be vaccinated. It will be important for ending the pandemic and lifting lockdowns.