In the eye of the storm: The conflict over vaccinations in England's 'Covid triangle'

Medics in hard-hit London borough of Redbridge are struggling to convince people to get coronavirus shot

In parts of east London, the pandemic has hit much harder than most places in the UK. The borough of Redbridge in the outer reaches of the capital had the nation’s second-worst infection rate in January. AP Photo

Redbridge Radio Cars driver Gary Nerden. Nerden knows colleagues who got seriously ill from Covid-19. He knows the area of east London where he lives and works has among the highest infection rates in the whole of England. But since he can't afford not to work, he drives around picking up strangers for up to 12 hours a day, relying on a flimsy plastic screen to keep him safe. AP Photo

Redbridge and its surrounding areas, which lie on a commuter belt between the capital’s northeast and coastal Essex, have been dubbed the “COVID triangle” because they all topped England’s worst infection rates in recent weeks. AP Photo

They say the area’s large number of essential workers in public-facing jobs, combined with dense housing and high levels of poverty, contribute to why the virus has hit it much harder than most places. AP Photo

Redbridge Councillor Jas Athwal said "“People are taking their chances — is it about feeding my children, or risking myself with Covid? And of course, they need to feed their children". AP Photo

Redbridge Councillor Jas Athwal, left, hands out leaflets and speaks to pedestrians in the town centre of Ilford. AP Photo

Doctor PJ Suresh draws from a vial of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine at the Fullwell Cross Medical Centre. Local leaders are racing to reach out to ethnic minority communities, where people are often less likely to come forward to be inoculated. AP Photo

Redbridge enforcement officers close a click and collect shop in the town centre of Ilford. AP Photo

Police officers speak to a busker as they patrol to enforce lockdown measures in the town centre of Ilford. AP Photo

A patient is injected with the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine at the Fullwell Cross Medical Centre. Dr. Anil Mehta, a local doctor, said health officials are making every effort to reach the poorest and hardest to reach communities. AP Photo

Taxi driver Gary Nerden knows colleagues who got seriously ill from Covid-19. He knows the area of east London where he lives and works has among the highest infection rates in the whole of England.

But since he can’t afford not to work, he drives around picking up fares for up to 12 hours a day, relying on a flimsy plastic screen to keep him safe.

“I’ve got people telling me they won’t wear a mask, saying they’re exempt,” said Nerden, 57. “I’ve got diabetes, I have to look after myself. I wipe the handles, the seat belt, after every customer, but that’s all I can do, really."

Mr Nerden and his wife, a hospital administration worker, live in the outer London borough of Redbridge, which in mid-January had England's second-highest rate of residents testing positive for the coronavirus: 1,571 cases per 100,000 people. Official figures estimated that at one point, one in 15 people in Redbridge had Covid-19, even after the government imposed England’s third national lockdown to control the fast-spreading UK strain.

Redbridge and its surrounding areas, which lie on a commuter belt between the capital’s north-east and Essex, have been called the ‘Covid triangle’ because they have all recorded England’s highest infection rates in recent weeks. While case rates have decreased significantly, civic leaders said the situation remained critical and the borough was still “in the eye of the storm”.

The area’s large number of essential workers in public-facing jobs, combined with dense housing and high levels of poverty, are likely to be the contributing factors behind Redbridge being one of the UK’s coronavirus hotspots. Those factors also make fighting the pandemic there particularly challenging.

“We have some of the most frontline workers here in the community: the taxi drivers, the NHS (National Health Service) workers, the train drivers going into central London, the commuter workers, the cleaners,” Redbridge council leader Jas Athwal said.

“People are taking their chances — is it about feeding my children, or risking myself with Covid? And of course, they need to feed their children. All that accounts for the excess number of virus infections, the deaths, because people are having to go out to do their job.”

Many of those lower-income workers with high exposure to the virus are from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are among the most at-risk — as well as the hardest to persuade to get vaccinated.

Redbridge’s population is among the country’s most diverse, with large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities and fewer than 40 per cent of residents identifying as white British.

Numerous studies have shown that the pandemic is causing disproportionately serious illness and deaths among ethnic minorities and those from poorer households. Public Health England found that, after accounting for factors like age and sex, people of Bangladeshi heritage in the UK were dying from Covid-19 at twice the rate of white Britons. Black people and other Asian groups were found to have a 10 to 50 per cent higher risk of death.

Experts say that is due to a combination of factors. People from minority groups are more likely to live in crowded housing and to take poorly ventilated public transport to go to work. They are also more likely to have long-term conditions like heart disease and diabetes that increase their risk of becoming seriously ill should they catch the virus.

Khayer Chowdhury, a Redbridge councillor of Bangladeshi descent, said many Asian households in the borough are multigenerational families living together under one roof, giving the virus greater opportunity to spread. “Our diversity makes us unique but it also makes us vulnerable,” he said.

Britain has lost more than 100,000 lives to coronavirus, the worst death toll in Europe.

“Here in the community, everybody knows somebody who’s passed away,” Mr Athwal said. “The fear is finally starting to hit home.”

Officials say a small but increasing number of people are breaching social restrictions, partly because of fatigue with lockdown rules. Enforcement officers have broken up gatherings and “car meets", shutting down and fining clubs and restaurants for hosting parties. On a recent weekday, a large team of police officers patrolled the main shopping street, which bustled with a steady stream of people despite government orders to stay at home.

However, the bigger challenge is on the vaccination front. Several UK-based studies suggest that vaccine take-up rate for both coronavirus and other medicines among black and ethnic minority people is significantly lower than that of the general population.

Some social researchers say that’s caused by longstanding distrust of authority and disengagement from public health messages, and potentially exacerbated by anti-vaccine posts on social media.

UK Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Thursday that vaccine uptake remained "incredibly high" but admitted that 15 per cent of eligible adults were still refusing to be inoculated — chiefly from minority backgrounds.

"We are absolutely focused on this area and you'll hear more on this in the coming days and weeks," Mr Zahawi said as the government was enlisting community leaders to support its vaccine delivery plan.

Redbridge resident Salman Khan and his wife said they were not sure they would have the vaccine if offered, because the pandemic has made them question “whether the government and the news is telling the truth".

Dr Anil Mehta, who works in the area, said health officials are making every effort to reach the poorest and hardest-to-reach communities. This week he is offering vaccine shots at homeless shelters, hoping to inoculate the area’s many refugees and those sleeping rough.

He has also taken on the role of ‘myth-buster’, trying to dispel misinformation and conspiracy theories.

“People believe in all sorts of things — ‘this is affecting fertility’, or ‘against Black Lives Matter’,” Dr Mehta said. “There is a lot of hesitancy, whether they want it, whether they trust us. That’s our battle at the moment.”