A Christian doctor and futurist has warned we are facing a national emergency because of the high numbers of people from predominately BAME backgrounds who are turning down a Covid-19 vaccine.
A new study by researchers found that 71 percent of white health care workers in Leicester had taken up the jab, 59 percent of Asian workers but only 37 percent of black staff.
Dr Patrick Dixon is Chairman of Global Change Ltd. He told Premier that there are many unfounded concerns over the safety of the vaccine and said the Leicester research is very significant:
"Why does that matter? I'll tell you it matters. It matters terribly, especially in churches, and just think that in London, on a normal Sunday, up to half of all believers in church are from BAME communities, in mostly black majority churches. Fantastic, what an exciting thing is going on what the Lord is doing. But in those same churches, I am hearing from the pastors of those churches who I'm talking to that maybe half of their congregations are already saying no, I don't want to have it. And they'll say reasons I've read something about maybe you know, a chip in the vaccine, that means that Microsoft will control my brain, or the genetic code will destroy my body, it isn't what God wants."
He added that he has looked at the science really carefully:
"We're not destroying your cells, we're not hijacking your cells, we're providing a simple instruction to human cells to make tiny parts of what looks like the outer surface of the vaccine, which makes the immune system very smart and clever when it sees the real thing. So it's a beautiful thing - so many viruses train us to be sick, how wonderful to train human cells using a little tool from viruses to make us better."
When it comes to conspiracy theories, Patrick Dixon told Premier there are concerns the vaccine could contain a chip to control people's brains, a possibility that he's quick to refute:
"I can tell you, it's extremely difficult to implant a chip into a brain and we have done it 50,000 times around the world so far, in people who have severe spinal cord damage, they can't control their own body. And by putting a tiny chip in the brain, we enable them to do something very crude and very simple like to be able to think and turn the air conditioning off. But it's very complicated, very crude. It costs 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of pounds and a huge neurosurgical operation on someone's brain in hospital and sometimes it doesn't work. So listen, it cannot be done by putting a tiny thing into an ampule. Anyway, the ampules are completely clear. You can view it see it in a nanosecond if there was anything there. So the vaccine is safe. It's a lifesaver."
Patrick Dixon is involved with the work of YourNeighbour.org, a network of over 1,000 churches from over 40 denominations in the UK who are coordinating a UK church response to the Covid-19 crisis working with churches, the Government and the NHS.
The website is running a series of live events involving church leaders including Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop Tedroy Powell and Nicky Gumbel to dispel myths about the vaccine.