No community has gone untouched from the suffering and hardships of the pandemic and my heart goes out to all who have experienced anxiety and loss. As mentioned in your brief this has hit certain sectors, geographies and ethnicities hardest. I would assert that we now have a particularly pressing need, and unique opportunity, to reset relations with minority communities who may have felt marginalised and victimised by misguided and poorly executed policies in the past. This is most starkly epitomised by, but by no means limited to, the Windrush generation whose right to remain was challenged after generations of living and contributing to our country.
Restoring faith in government and our institutions will aid public health efforts, including vaccination rollout, to our minority communities. My wife is an American citizen, from a minority ethnic group. From our time in Boston I am depressed, but not surprised, to hear that only one in four African Americans intend to get vaccinated. Enthusiasm for the vaccine may be higher here but is still noticeably muted amongst our own minority communities. I praise the recent efforts to reach out to minorities and urge that policy changes be considered to help reduce marginalisation. There is a moral imperative to do everything in our power to reassure all our communities that the government has their interests at heart.
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