LONDON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The British government is considering whether COVID-19 vaccine passports could be used at large events, but researchers have pointed out that such certificates are likely to further exclude ethnic minorities in the country.
Professor John Drury, co-author of the first rapid review of evidence on the behavioural effects of COVID-status certification, told Xinhua that data suggested ethnic minorities could be negatively affected if COVID-19 vaccination passports are to be implemented soon.
"If you look at the data on that (vaccinations and testing), who is it demographically who are behind others in terms of vaccination? Who is it who are more reluctant to come forward for testing, and consistently, across different studies it's the same demographics, it's ethnic minorities, it's deprived communities, right, so there's a pattern there."
Using this data, Drury said he believes that the same pattern would be reproduced for COVID-19 passports.
"The people that are kind of disadvantaged already, would be further excluded," Drury said.
In a trial scheme, COVID-19 passports will be used by sports fans for the first time for matches at London's Wembley Stadium. However, a number of British lawmakers have come forward to say that passports are unjustified and discriminatory.
Drury suggested that if the scheme is implemented for large events, then following the data, audiences at these events will become "a bit more white and a bit less diverse".
Drury said he believes there are a few reasons why ethnic minorities may be impacted by the potential scheme.
According to research carried out by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), there is greater vaccine hesitancy in ethnic minorities.
For Drury, vaccine hesitancy can mean a lot of things.
"It's unpacking vaccine hesitancy, what we mean is not people who are outright refusing or anti-vaxxers (who believe vaccines are unsafe), it's people that are a bit cautious and want to know more, haven't come forward yet," he said.
Hesitancy, both Drury and the BMJ suggested, could come from a poor historical relationship between a certain population with medical authorities -- "as in a lack of trust, as in the authorities have historically not treated that population well," Drury added.
There are also practical reasons for vaccine hesitancy, some people cannot miss a day of work to get the vaccine or miss multiple days to recover.
Drury pointed at a few successful vaccine programs, however, that have managed to reduce hesitancy among the population.
"The programs that have been successful have gone out and tried to meet people's needs, to kind of meet people halfway. So rather than saying to people, all you've got to come at this time to this location, when sometimes locations are not convenient, you take the vaccination to them with a mobile vaccination unit. So you know, there are things that can be done to address that."
Although vaccine hesitancy is generally low in Britain compared to other countries, and hesitancy appears to be decreasing, experts are concerned that if COVID-19 passes are implemented then it could increase the demographic difference.
According to Drury, a compulsory vaccine passport scheme could confirm the lack of trust in the British government, and could have the opposite effect than intended and drive people away from vaccination -- which would likely impact ethnic minorities greater.
More than 42 million people have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and more than 30.4 million have received their second dose across Britain, according to the latest official figures.
Britain has reported another 9,055 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, the highest daily number since February, according to official figures released Wednesday. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 4,589,814.
Experts have warned that coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come, and eventually it is likely current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. Enditem