Liverpool City Council and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) has been working with primary care providers and community innovation teams to research into some of the most common barriers to COVID-19 vaccination in the city.

Liverpool still has one of the highest levels of vaccine hesitancy in the UK. Only 70 per cent of people aged 18 and above have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with inner city Liverpool continuing to have a much lower vaccine uptake than other areas of the city.

The project found that hesitancy around safety, complacency, mistrust of institutions, and not wanting to be ‘told what to do’ were amongst the most commonly given reasons for choosing not to be vaccinated.

Those most likely to remain unvaccinated included white males aged under 50 years old, women of childbearing age with concerns about fertility, and some Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) populations across Liverpool.

As part of this community-led project, a series of ‘good news’ video stories were created, featuring local people from Central Liverpool sharing their own unique experiences during the pandemic, with the hope of helping to combat vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

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Made by the community, and for the community, with support from award-winning film makers Brightmoon Media, each story reveals the personal motivation of different individuals from inner city Liverpool who chose to get vaccinated.

In addition, the project also featured a powerful pop-up photo exhibition, entitled “I did it for…” created with Liverpool photographer Jane MacNeil. Each portrait in the series draws attention to the resilience of local communities, and highlights key themes of trust, friendship, family, and collective responsibility.

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Both the films and photographs were exhibited to an audience of community volunteers, healthcare professionals and local residents, as part of a celebratory learning event held at the Florrie in Toxteth at the beginning of June 2022, which aimed to reflect on learnings from the project.

The event also featured a performance by Gambian artist and community activist Nazeem, and speakers included Liverpool’s Director of Public Health Professor Matt Ashton, and international public health professional, Dr Lilian Otiso, Director of LVCT Health Kenya – a longstanding partner with LSTM. 

It is hoped that these community stories continue to be circulated and shared over the coming weeks, in order to help reduce disparities in vaccine uptake across different groups within the city.

There are also plans to replicate the project’s success in Central Liverpool across other areas of the city with high levels of vaccine hesitancy too.

LSTM will also be sharing an online report of the Learning Event by the end of June.

For more information about this project, please click here.