BAME Britons less likely to trust Covid health officials
source: The Guardian
published: 27 August 2020
Black and minority ethnic people trusted government scientists and public health officials less than white people did at the height of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak, according to a study that raises fresh questions about the pandemic’s disproportionate impact.
BAME people were more likely to believe their employers’ advice than anything Boris Johnson or the government said, and trusted the NHS and Public Health England (PHE) less than white people did, the research suggests.
At the same time they felt more vulnerable to the impact of Covid-19 and were far more likely to say it was difficult to follow the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of infection, according to the survey for the Wellcome Trust carried out in March and April as the virus reached its peak.
The findings prompted questions about whether more could have been done to better communicate with different communities, with one council leader querying the impact of daily Downing Street briefings that were frequently presented by three white men.
Fifty-seven per cent of BAME people reported having either complete trust or a great deal of trust in information from health scientists, compared with 75% of white people.
