Watch the video: preparing for future pandemics in prisons

Speaker presentations explored what needs to be in place to prevent and manage future pandemics in prisons, as well as how we can hold the government to account for their Covid response. The discussion mainly focused on the vaccination of prisoners. 

Speakers included:

• Dr. Éamonn O'Moore - MD MPH FFPH, National Lead for Health & Justice, Public Health England and Director UK Collaborating Centre World Health Organisation Health in Prisons Programme (European Region)
• Chantal Edge - Public Health Registrar and National Institute of Health Research Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow (University College London Collaborative Centre for Inclusion Health)
• Nasrul Ismail - Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol
• Dr Zubaida Haque - Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies

There was strong agreement among the panellists that mass vaccinations across prisons was both scientifically justified and, given the ongoing spread of the delta variant, necessary.

At the height of the second wave, Éamonn O'Moore, said, “almost every prison in England had an outbreak… many of those outbreaks were extremely large.” He went on to say that “As a doctor… I am certainly convinced that we have both the science and the ethical arguments on our side to push for mass vaccinations in prisons”.