TV ad to encourage black people and ethnic minorities to get Covid vaccine

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

An advert featuring black and British-Asian celebrities is set to air across commercial television to encourage ethnic minority groups to accept a coronavirus vaccine.

The clip, a version of which was released online last month, features stars including Meera Syal and Romesh Ranganathan, and journalist Rageh Omaar.

It is due to appear on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky shortly before 10pm on Thursday, according to reports.

Adil Ray, a TV writer who started the campaign, told Sky News: “Even if it makes one person get the Covid-19 vaccine, then we’ve made a difference.”

There are fears that misinformation about the jabs, which are safe, is spreading within some minority groups. Last year official statistics showed black and Asian people were more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people.

Mr Ranganathan told BBC Breakfast: “It just feels so heart-breaking to me that people from ethnic minorities are inflicting a degree of separation upon themselves from not trusting in this, and I understand all the reasons why – I've heard all the arguments.

“But I just feel so strongly that we need to make sure we dispel some of these myths, so that people are getting involved and we can get ourselves out of this pandemic.”

At the weekend, the UK passed the milestone of having given a vaccine to 15 million people.

Boris Johnson also claimed that in England, everyone from the most vulnerable groups had been offered one – but reporting by The Independent cast doubt on that assertion, with some housebound people saying they had been “forgotten”.