Exploring Covid-19 vaccine concerns with African, Caribbean, and Black communities in Scotland.

This project aimed to generate high-impact, evidence-based resources to inform COVID-19 vaccine engagement in Scotland's African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities, who continue to have low vaccine engagement following the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination programme (PHS, 2022), with only 55% of this group being fully vaccinated. The research base for the project was Dr Adekola's work on risk perception, including a 2021 study on factors influencing public perception of risk from Covid-19; and a 2022 study (funded by BEMIS) on African, Caribbean and Black community experiences of Covid-19 vaccines.

This work suggested that awareness and understanding of the science and data behind the COVID-19 vaccines are critical in informing COVID-19 vaccine uptake decisions, which may be affected by concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines and issues around trust and vaccine confidence more generally.

Dr Adekola worked in partnership with community organisations, health experts, and academics to engage African, Caribbean and Black communities in Scotland through community workshops and a co-produced video. The critical question guiding the film is: Does better access to science, data, and scientific expertise enhance vaccine engagement? The film premiered in October 2022 and was followed by a panel discussion exploring key themes.

You can watch a video of the full film, as well as a video of the panel discussion.

This project ran from April 2021 - January 2022 and was funded via the University of Glasgow's ESRC Impact Accleration Account.

It was made possible through collaboration with multiple partners including:

BEMIS Scotland

Black and Scot

Jambo Radio (Nigerian Pride)

JeezRel Consultancy

PRESPECT Hub CIC Edinburgh

Public Health Scotland

SHAWN Glasgow

Scotland Vaccine Inclusion and Equality team (Scottish Government)

Time to Heal Aberdeen