The vaccine rollout has began and we can finally see a light at the end of this tunnel of lockdowns, quarantine and disease. In the UK, the vaccines are being administered to 9 ‘top priority’ groups first, which include all those over 65, healthcare and frontline workers and those with underlying health conditions. Under 30’s, the group considered to be the least at risk of serious illness from COVID-19, are at the bottom of the priority list. The vaccine rollout in the UK has been a success so far, and it's not long before those of us under the age of 30 are called for our vaccine. However, many young people may choose not to take the vaccine, with the mindset that they don’t need it as they are young, healthy and don’t think they would get very sick from COVID-19. While this might be true and COVID-19 is not as much as a health risk to young people as it is to older people, everyone still needs to get the vaccine, and this post is to explain why.
The main reason that its so crucial that there is a high uptake of the vaccine amongst young people is that it’s needed to achieve herd immunity (we all may remember it was one of Boris Johnston’s favourite terms during the beginning of the pandemic). Herd immunity means that if enough people in the community are immune to a virus, those who are not immune will still be protected as the virus will not be able to thrive in the population if it does not have enough people to infect. There are many people who will be unable to get the vaccine for various reasons, such as babies, pregnant women or those with allergies to any of the vaccine ingredients. I think we can all agree that babies and pregnant women are very vulnerable groups that must be protected, therefore uptake of the vaccine by everyone else who can receive it is of the upmost importance.
Others may believe that COVID-19 is not a health risk to them, and the potential side effects of the vaccine are worse than those of COVID-19. However, many do not consider the implications of ‘long-COVID’. In case you haven’t heard of it, long-COVID is when the side effects of a COVID-19 infection last for months after being infected. Long-COVID can be debilitating, and there is no way to predict who will suffer from it in the same way that we can predict who would become the most ill immediately after a COVID-19 infection. Long-COVID has been reported to cause symptoms including persistent headaches, brain fog insomnia, extreme tiredness, dizziness and a range of other neurological side effects. For all young men out there, long-COVID has also been shown to increase your risk of erectile dysfunction by up to six times – I’m sure a tinder date would much rather you’d had the vaccine!
Some might choose not to get the vaccine as they believe it will not be effective in protecting them from COVID-19. A study carried out in the USA in February 2021 showed that only 22% of young people had confidence that the vaccine would protect them from disease. However, real-world data now shows that the vaccines are better than we thought at not only protecting us from disease but also at reducing transmission of the virus. A study carried out by the CDC in April 2021 tested 3,950 healthcare workers for COVID-19 for three months after they had received both doses of an mRNA vaccine. The study showed that full vaccination reduced infection by 90% and a single dose reduced it by 80%. This is an exceptionally high level of reduction and shows that the vaccines WORK.
Link to CDC study: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7013e3.htm
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