Minister joins COVID-19 vaccine study at Guy's at St Thomas'

Tuesday 13 October 2020


Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch taking part in COVID-19 vaccine trial

Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has taken part in a COVID-19 vaccine trial at Guy’s and St Thomas’. She joined the trial as researchers called on more people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and the over 65s to volunteer for clinical studies through the NHS Vaccine Registry.

Ms Badenoch is taking part in a trial of the Novavax vaccine, comparing it to a placebo. With further trials opening at the Trust over the coming months, people interested in taking part can sign up to the NHS Vaccine Registry.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ are also sharing updates on COVID-19 research at the Trust on its COVID-19 studies page. Having a wide variety of participants will help to ensure a potential vaccine works for all.

Currently, ethnic minorities are under-represented in vaccine clinical trials taking place across the UK. Of the 270,000 people who have already signed up to the NHS Registry, only 11,000 volunteers are from Asian and British Asian backgrounds, and just 1,200 are Black, African, Caribbean or Black British. The registry was launched in July to create a database of people who can be contacted by the NHS to take part in clinical studies, to speed up the development of a safe and effective vaccine.

Large-scale clinical studies with a diverse pool of volunteers will help researchers better understand the effectiveness of each potential vaccine.

This includes people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. According to Public Health England, people from Black backgrounds are statistically more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, while death rates are higher for Black and Asian ethnic groups.

In addition, other vulnerable groups such as people with chronic diseases or those over the age of 65 years are needed to take part in trials and are also being urged to volunteer for clinical trials.

Minister for Equalities Kemi Badenoch said: “The UK is leading the world in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine. At home, we have to ensure every community trusts a future vaccine to be safe and that it works across the entire population.

“But with less than half a per cent of people on the NHS Vaccine Registry from a Black background, we have a lot more work to do.

“That is why I am urging more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to join me in signing up to the NHS Vaccine Registry and taking part in a trial. Together we can be part of the national effort to end this pandemic for good.”

Dr Anna Goodman, a consultant in infectious diseases at Guy’s and St Thomas’ who is leading the Novavax study at the Trust said: “We are privileged to work in such a research active trust serving such a diverse local population. The Novavax vaccine trial is one of several trials of Urgent Public Health importance in COVID-19 that we are currently running.

“Finding effective vaccines to prevent coronavirus (COVID-19) is key to our global efforts to control the spread of this disease.

“Having participants in our COVID-19 trials who come from a range of backgrounds gives us the best possible chance of ensuring the findings of trials apply to everyone. We are hugely grateful to the Minister and all the other participants who are taking part in all of these research trials at Guy’s and St Thomas’.”

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said:

“Coronavirus affects anyone regardless of their background, age or race. To ensure we can find a safe and effective vaccine that works for everyone, we all need to get involved.

“That’s why we are urging more people to support our incredible scientists and join the 270,000 people who have already signed-up so we can speed up efforts to find a vaccine to defeat this virus once and for all.”

Chair of the Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, Kate Bingham said:

“The only way to check how well a coronavirus vaccine works is to carry out large-scale clinical trials involving thousands of people. Researchers need data from different communities and different people to improve understanding of the vaccines. The only way to get this is through large clinical trials.

“We want to ensure the data we get actually represents the different people from different backgrounds in the UK. This includes people who are over 65, frontline healthcare workers, or have existing health conditions, and we need people from the communities which have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds.”

Dr Maheshi Ramasamy, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Acute General Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Oxford Vaccine Group said: 

“We know that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by COVID in terms of severe disease and mortality. So when we do have a vaccine that we roll out to the general population, it's really important that we can demonstrate to people from these communities that we have evidence that the vaccine works.”

The Vaccine Registry has been developed by the government, in partnership with the NIHR, NHS Digital, the Scottish and Welsh governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.

People who volunteer may be approached by researchers to discuss taking part in research studies in the UK.

The UK public can support the national effort to speed up vaccine research and receive more information about volunteering for clinical studies by visiting the NHS website.

Last updated: March 2022

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