{"id":27119,"date":"2021-02-02T16:34:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T16:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/cjsnews\/?p=27119"},"modified":"2021-02-07T17:50:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T17:50:59","slug":"are-drug-and-alcohol-users-being-left-behind-in-the-race-against-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/cjsnews\/are-drug-and-alcohol-users-being-left-behind-in-the-race-against-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Are drug and alcohol users being left behind in the race against Covid-19?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drug and alcohol charities in Wales are urging the Government to consider how their patients will access coronavirus vaccines.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call follows a report from the Chief Medical Officer for Wales which shows the poorest people in the country are twice as likely to die from Covid.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kaleidoscope Project, which is the biggest charity for alcohol and drug users in Wales, says that services like themselves should be giving the vaccines to their users.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Blakebrough, the CEO of the charity, said: \u201cYou’ve got to make sure that people who are vulnerable get the vaccine where they most need it and where they feel comfortable to go.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if I was used to getting my methadone script from the local pharmacy it would make a lot more sense for that local pharmacy to administer that vaccine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Blakebrough also addressed the issues that surrounded anti-vaccination beliefs in these communities, saying:  \u201cThe conspiracies tend to ferment in your lower social demographics, of which are lot of our service users are. So, it\u2019s really important that organisations like ours are finding creative ways of moving people out of those theories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe decided to give all our clients hand sanitiser bottles. One of the reasons we did that was to keep them safe but mainly it was a creative way of getting the message out there that Covid is real. Not enough information is given to these people about why coronavirus can affect them and not just the wider community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"