A letter to loved ones about the COVID-19 vaccine – Sir Lenny Henry | NHS

Dear mums and dads, grandparents, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, sons, daughters, cousins.

We love you!

We know we don’t say it often enough and sometimes we have our disagreements, like families do, but wherever you are, we love you from the bottom of our hearts and we know you love us.

And we want to see you again.

COVID-19 has kept us apart for way too long.

We want to hug you, we want to celebrate with you, we want to worship with you.

We want to play video games with you.

Preferably in the same room, so that we can see the look on your face when we beat you.

But in order to do all that – we all need to take the COVID-19 jab.

It’s all of us in this together.

Things will slowly get back to normal.

Well, what they’re calling the new normal.

But in reality, a new normal will mean needing a vaccine for doing the kinds of things we used to take for granted.

Because we love you – we want you to be safe. We don’t want you to be left out or left behind.

While other communities are rushing to get the vaccine and millions have already been vaccinated, some Black people in our community are being more cautious.

You have legitimate worries and concerns and we hear that.

We know change needs to happen and that it’s hard to trust some institutions and authorities.

But we’re asking you to trust the facts about the vaccine from our own professors, scientists and doctors involved in the vaccine’s development. GPs, not just from here in the UK but from all over the world, including Africa and the Caribbean.

Many of whom are our relatives, many of whom have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the people of this country from this pandemic.

And the thousands who volunteered to be part of vaccine trials, so that we know it’s safe and works for people of all ethnicities.

Don’t let their sacrifice be in vain.

Don’t let your concerns be the thing that widens racial inequality in our society.

Don’t let coronavirus cost even more Black lives. Because we matter.

We love you.

We don’t want you to get sick.

We don’t want you to die.

So please hear us and when your turn comes, take the jab.

Let’s do this together.

And once you do, tell cousin Mo to do the same thing (is he really my cousin?)

Let’s do this together.
Thank you.
Lenny x

nhs.uk/covidvaccine