Amsterdam concerned: Ethnically diverse residents refusing Covid vaccines

The City of Amsterdam is set to launch a campaign to encourage its residents with an ethnically diverse background to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, local broadcaster AT5 reported. Research showed that people from some cultural backgrounds are more reluctant to receive the jab, commonly as a result of misinformation in the media they consume.

Research carried out by the GGD, the Amsterdam UMC and Pharos shows that only 28 percent of Amsterdammers with a Moroccan background wanted to receive the vaccine. The willingness to get vaccinated was also low among residents with Surinamese, Turkish and Ghanaian backgrounds.

"My mother, very much like the big chunk of first-generation immigrants, gets news about Covid-19 from news sources from abroad. Sometimes there’s useful information, but also misinformation", Amsterdam city council member Sheher Khan wrote on Twitter.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema advised people not to let themselves be fooled by different kinds of misinformation in relation to the safety of the jabs. "I can be vaccinated myself tomorrow, let me start with that, and I would like to say to everyone: don't be afraid, get vaccinated, it has been tested and tested again and it is safe," said the mayor.

D66 councilor Sjoerd Warmerdam said the municipality was going to launch a special campaign aimed at increasing the confidence in the Covid-19 vaccine among the Dutch capital population of foreign descent. Warmerdam explained this will be done through "neighborhood organizations, mosques, community centers and other outlets."

Warmerdam also explained that many of these groups have been particularly hard hit with the coronavirus. "I hope that we can combat these health inequalities by giving all groups access to information so that as many people as possible get a vaccination," he concluded.