SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Zain AhmadThe risk of catching and becoming very sick from Covid remains high for black and South Asian people – and it’s partly because fewer have decided to get vaccinated against coronavirus.That’s what a recent study found – so what’s behind the lower rate of uptake among black and Asian people?Radio 1 Newsbeat’s been speaking to some people about why vaccine hesitancy might be higher in their ethnic groups.It’s as the UK government is making a huge push to get more people vaccinated.That’s because of a new variant of coronavirus, Omicron, which may spread more easily.We’re still finding out how serious Omicron is, and we don’t know if it makes people more ill than other versions of the virus.’Frustrating’ conversationsZain Ahmad, who is British-Pakistani, has had his first and second doses and is getting his booster jab this week.But the 20-year-old medical student says “a lot” of his South Asian friends back home in Buckinghamshire don’t want the vaccine because they “are not sure about the evidence or the safety”.The vaccines approved for use in the UK have met strict safety standards and scientists have repeatedly said the serious complications of Covid itself are a far greater risk to people than any rare complications associated with vaccines.Zain thinks more South Asian people might have the jab if there was better education and clearer messaging around the benefits of it, as well as better trust of the government and the healthcare system.”There is a lot of health inequality in this country and South Asians, among other groups, have been adversely affected. Does this group feel they can trust the healthcare system the same as their white British peers? I don’t know.”Covid risk remains higher for some ethnic groupsWatchdog probes racial inequalities in healthcareCovid ‘has thrived on racial discrimination’The government has said it will use the report findings to help tackle health disparities, which have been raised an issue throughout the pandemic.Last year an inquiry was launched to find out why people in the UK from black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups were twice as likely as white people to be infected by coronavirus, and more likely to need intensive care and to die from the virus.And the British Medical Association says racial disparities have a “significant impact” on people’s health in general.Zain says he’s tried to help educate friends to encourage them to take the vaccine, but that beliefs “can be quite deeply embedded into someone’s mind”.”Even though I’m studying about vaccines and how beneficial they are at controlling diseases like Covid… sometimes you can’t convince people, and that’s their right to choose,” he says.”Those conversations are quite hard, they’re frustrating, but they’re not as easy as saying someone is right and wrong – there’s more to it than that.”‘There’s no trust’The issue of trust is the main reason roughly a third of Cameron Cole’s black friends and family haven’t had the jab yet.That figure matches up to research which has found black people are the least likely to have the vaccine in England. Some 95% of white people aged 50 and over have been jabbed, compared with 87% of South Asian people and 73% of black people, the research says.Cameron, who is black Caribbean, has had the jab but can understand why some of his loved ones have chosen not to have it yet.”If they did feel trust in what they’re being told by the powers that be, then they’ll do it,” the 28-year-old from south London says.”The government, somehow, needs to regain the trust of its people.”Image source, Cameron ColeCameron, a project manager in construction, says the distrust also makes his unvaccinated family and friends more likely to believe misinformation and conspiracy theories they see on social media.”People make their minds up for themselves and always edge towards the rubbish that they hear on YouTube because it goes against what the powers that be are saying.”This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Group chat ‘tension’Sharnie May Crooks, who is black Caribbean, says about 20% of her family has had the vaccine.The standout reason stopping her from having the jab is a concern about the possibility of unknown long-term effects, even though reports of serious side-effects are very rare. “There’s definitely a lot of tension when it comes to discussing it, because obviously we completely disagree on each other’s stances,” Sharnie May says.”The tension comes when we send different news reports and statistics into the family group chat – it’s usually just all the unvaccinated people speaking and all the vaccinated people not saying anything.”Image source, Sharnie May CrooksSharnie May says some people who she goes to uni with in Warwick have called her selfish for not having the vaccine but that she feels her view should be respected.”Instead of pointing the finger at the people who are unvaccinated, maybe we should point the finger at the fact that this vaccine is just not good enough,” she says, referencing that people who have been vaccinated can still catch and pass on Covid.Covid vaccines suppress infections and reduce the risk of severe illness. They were never expected to completely stop the spread of the disease.The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has 93% effectiveness against symptomatic infection of the Delta variant of the virus – which is the most common one in the UK at the moment – two weeks after the second dose, compared with 71% for the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.First data points to Omicron re-infection riskEthnic Covid-jab gap ‘not due to area or education”Vaccine passports make me reluctant to get a jab’Sharnie May says people will become “more reluctant” to get the jab the more they feel it’s being “forced upon them”. “Everyone as human beings, we like to feel as though we have a choice.”Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightDr Pankti Pandya”We’ve had to grow up a lot in one month… as fresh interns we’ve been thrown into a crisis-like situation.”It’s often said that jumping in at the deep end is the best way to start a new job. And as Covid cripples India’s healthcare system, it’s sink or swim for junior doctors fresh out of university.On 26 February, 22-year-old Dr Pankti Pandya had just finished her final year of undergraduate study in her home state of Gujarat, on India’s west coast.There were 424 Covid cases that day in Gujarat.That daily number had risen to 1,580 by 22 March, when Pankti started her internship – the final phase of medical training before officially graduating – at Shree Krishna Hospital, in the district of Anand.And by the time she had finished her first month of work, Gujarat’s daily cases had soared to more than 12,500.”It is a lot of work and you cannot sit for even a moment,” Pankti tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.India Covid aid ‘not reaching those in need”It feels like we’re back to square one’India is a Covid disaster – it didn’t have to beInstead of spending the year doing placements in lots of different areas of medicine, this year’s interns are needed on the Covid front line.Pankti and her peers have been put on a constantly changing shift pattern that includes periods of seven consecutive days of 12-hour shifts – night or day – on a Covid ward.”We’ve been thrown into that field, into the thick of things,” she says.Pankti describes one shift where she had to look after about 60 patients with only two more doctors – also junior – on shift. They were on a non-critical Covid ward, where patients are considered “stable” – which means fewer doctors get allocated per ward.”We could feel the shortage of workforce,” Pankti says.She says it can feel “very scary” to work in critical care units when there are so many patients that “there’s no way that you can look after all of them”.image copyrightGetty ImagesDeciding how to prioritise patients and seeing lots of people die are things doctors usually take years to learn to manage, Pankti says.But in the face of the pandemic, the interns “have grown up really fast”.”A lot of my friends have had to deal with death at a very early time in their internship, almost on their first day or first night – which is always something which affects you a lot when you are first training.”That’s a feeling shared by Dr Simran Agrawal, 24, who began her internship at Nair Hospital in Mumbai in March 2020.”It was difficult for us to cater to the mental health needs of our patients when we ourselves were physically and mentally drained and burnt out,” she tells Newsbeat.image copyrightDr Simran AgrawalSimran says the “level of fear” among patients and staff was “the most challenging thing” during her internship.”I saw patients who were isolated from their families… they would cry and they would try to run away.”In a separate conversation on the BBC’s OS programme, Simran adds: “You know being a doctor will not be candies and roses… but to start your training with such a disheartening and heart-breaking atmosphere – that’s quite challenging.”Between shifts on Covid wards, interns have been given some seemingly less demanding jobs, such as monitoring medical supplies across hospitals to combat shortages.But these behind-the-scenes jobs can be just as draining.Simran says one of her toughest jobs as an intern was managing a Covid helpline, which often involved finding hospital beds for callers and arranging ambulances for them.In December and January, Simran began to feel burnt out, both physically and mentally, but felt there was “no option” to take a step back from her work.”I would have loved to have a small break at that time, but there was no time for it,” she says.Back in Anand, Pankti also prefers the “exhausting” Covid ward shifts to the deskbound ones.”Maybe because we’re fresh trainees and we’ve just started out, we kind of feel the adrenaline rush. “We see that this is a situation which needs help, and we feel like we can do our bit in helping – so we actually like to go there and we like to take care of patients.”It’s an exciting job – I actually cannot wait to get back.”Another junior doctor who is trying to focus on the positives is Dr Kamna Kakkar.Kamna, 29, graduated as an anaesthetist last summer, but after spending a year treating critically-ill Covid patients in Rohtak, Haryana, she is thinking about changing her career path to stay in ICU.”Despite all the sadness around us, despite all the devastation that’s happening, I think when I’m able to save even one patient or two patients, that feeling of satisfaction is just so rewarding,” she says.”Maybe I was destined to be here.”However, Kamna admits the latest wave has been “devastating”.image copyrightDr Kamna KakkarShe works lots of double shifts because many colleagues are catching Covid, which leaves the wards understaffed.A week ago, she became upset after seeing the “super crowded” emergency room full of Covid patients waiting for an ICU bed.”It just broke my heart,” says Kamna, who spoke to Newsbeat in a personal capacity.A visual guide to the Covid crisis in IndiaIndia says new variant linked to Covid surgeSince that moment, Kamna is trying not to think about “the number of dead bodies piling up”, so that she can focus on the people she can save.”I hope I don’t come across as someone inhuman, but this is the kind of life we live,” she says.”I think I’ve gotten used to these highs and lows of working in ICU and, hopefully, I’ll be able to cope with it better in the coming days.”image copyrightAFP/Getty ImagesFollow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.