Bishop of Buckingham hits out at Coronavirus vaccine misinformation

With the UK's vaccination programme this week reaching the 16 million dose mark, bishops and church leaders in the Church of England have been speaking out against vaccine misinformation.
The Bishop of BuckinghamThe Bishop of Buckingham
The Bishop of Buckingham

This has been including The Rt Revd Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, who has been speaking out amid warnings that misinformation has resulted in a low uptake among some communities.

This poses a huge risk to the entirety of the programme's effectiveness in protecting the population of the UK.

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While uptake of the vaccine so far has met Government targets, significant numbers indicating mistrust, including in some UKME communities, mean that some people in younger age-groups may be less likely to take up the vaccine than the groups targeted to date.

The Church of England have put together a video you can watch in this article with church leaders pleading with people to take the vaccine when offered.

In the Video, Rt Revd Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham says:

"In the last year covid has had a devastating impact on all of your lives.

"Far too many people have died far too soon.

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"The pandemic has shown up and exploited inequalities in our society.

"Pain and loss of so many is indescribable.

"As followers of Jesus Christ our life has been disrupted as never before.

"Infections and deaths have touched every family in the UK.

"Church life has been impacted in 1000 different ways but there is one thing we are all agreed upon

God calls us to love our neighbours as our ourselves.

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"And to do all we possibly can to give hope and stop covid.

"One basic thing we can all do to stop the suffering is to ensure we take a vaccine when we are offered it.

"This is the best, fastest route out of this terrible time.

"Everyone who takes the vaccine is protecting their neighbours

"And hasting the day we can all be together again."

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He went on to recognise the anxieties surrounding the vaccine, but

Appearing in a compilation video are Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, Olivia Graham, Bishop of Reading, Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, who leads the Church of England's recovery group, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, Philip North, Bishop of Burnley, Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro, Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield, Guli Francis Dehqani, Bishop of Loughborough and bishop designate of Chelmsford, Martin Gorrick, Bishop of Dudley, Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, Robert Springett, Bishop of Tewkesbury and Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham.

In many more church leaders and other individuals have been sharing their personal messages of encouragement using the hashtag #GiveHope.

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