Damaging anti-vax conspiracy theories still rife, Badenoch tells Covid Inquiry
Conspiracy theories are still rife in the wake of the pandemic and the Government has not “got a handle” on the situation, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Business Secretary told the Covid Inquiry on Thursday that she was “very, very concerned” about the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation in the UK and that it continues to present medical challenges.
“I don’t think Government’s got a handle on dealing with misinformation,” she said. “I don’t think that we have adapted to this age of social media where information travels at lightning speed across the world. I don’t know how we solve it.”
The Cabinet secretary revealed that she is still the target of conspiracy theories accusing her of being part of a secret Government plot centred on “culling the population”.
“The number of people who come up to me in the street and tell me that I am part of a grand conspiracy to infect them, and so-and-so died because of the material that we were putting out,” she said. “It’s very disturbing… I am still very, very concerned about the issue of misinformation.”
Ms Badenoch, who gave evidence to the inquiry in relation to her previous role as equalities minister during the pandemic, also raised concerns that vaccine misinformation helped drive up Covid infection rates among ethnic minorities.
She said it was in part because the UK has a “high level” of first-generation immigrants “who come from countries where people do not trust the Government”.
The Cabinet Secretary warned that whilst she has been assured work is being done across Government departments to combat the spread of misinformation, she was yet to see any proof.
“I don’t see it,” she said. “It may be there is lots of work being done and it’s covered, but it’s hard to if that is the case to know what has been done.”
The UK Household Longitudinal Study published in 2021 found huge disparities between ethnicities in willingness to get vaccinated against Covid.
The study found that black ethnic groups were the most likely to be vaccine hesitant, with 71.8 per cent of those surveyed at that time saying they were unlikely to get a Covid jab. It was followed by the Pakistani or Bangladeshi ethnic group, of whom 42.3 per cent said they wouldn’t get vaccinated.
It marked a stark contrast against white British and Irish people surveyed, with just 15.6 per cent saying they were reluctant to get jabbed.
Ms Badenoch said there “was a lot of fear” among some ethnic groups, partially driven by historically low representation in clinical trials.
The Business Secretary cited widespread vaccine hesitancy among some groups as the reason for her decision to participate in the clinical trial for the Novavax vaccine, “to let people know that this wasn’t something that they should be afraid of”.
This story is being updated
