Conspiracy theories undermined vaccination drive - Badenoch - BBC News
The business secretary says "there was a lot of fear" in some communities around Covid vaccinations.
Kemi Badenoch covered a lot of ground today – but one of the key things that how much the government has struggled to get people in ethnic minority communities to trust them.

At no point was this perhaps more stark than during the pandemic – a time when, from lockdowns to vaccines, trust in the authorities was key.

Badenoch used her own family’s group chat as an example of how anti-government conspiracy theories were able to spread.

“I’m in a family WhatsApp group with members from across the world, from Africa to the US,” she said – adding that people share “a lot of conspiracy theories” in there.

“The government cannot get into my family WhatsApp group. There are some channels which you cannot break into in the information age that we live in.”

She added that in a lot of communities there are people who are first-generation migrants from countries where people really don’t trust governments.

And summing up her thoughts, she said: “I don't think government has got a handle on dealing with misinformation.”

Note her use of the present tense, there. It’s clear that that lack of trust is still a concern.