Westminster alumnus Dr Mustapha Bittaye, who is a Postdoctoral Scientist at the University of Oxford and one of the core scientists working on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, was interviewed by BBC News about his experience working on the vaccine and his hopes to inspire other Black scientists to realise their own life dreams.
In the interview, Dr Bittaye spoke about inspiring other Black scientists, and said: “For people who look like me, seeing me and taking inspiration from the work I do, for me means a lot…There is no limit to what they can achieve as Black scientists or whatever ethnic minority you might belong to.”
Talking about misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, he added: “There is a lot of infodemic of misinformation happening, mainly on social media, which is driving a lot of misinformation and hesitancy about vaccines. We already know that vaccines are the most effective public health intervention after clean drinking water.
“If somebody is sick and they go to the hospital, they get treatment. They do not go to a friend or somebody who is not a doctor for their diagnosis, they rely on a doctor to diagnose them. So, the same way you rely on a doctor for information about your ailment, is the same way you should rely on the experts in the field who are involved in this work.”
Watch the full interview on the BBC News website.
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