Genuine question- why do low risk people need the vaccine ?

[stufftosay]

If a 20 year old's risk of death is so low and if we don't know or so far whether the vaccine prevents spread- why do they need to be vaccinated ?

If the vaccine prevents spread then I understand why. But so far they're saying it only prevents serious illness from covid. So if you're super low risk, why would you need to get it ? Genuine question. Please let me know if I've misunderstood something !

If we vaccinate all elderly and at risk patients, would this not be enough ? Does everyone need to be vaccinated because the vaccine is not 100 percent effective so there may be some vulnerable people who aren't protected by it? So we need to stamp it out completely ?

If we vaccinate all elderly and at risk patients, would this not be enough ? Does everyone need to be vaccinated because the vaccine is not 100 percent effective so there may be some vulnerable people who aren't protected by it? So we need to stamp it out completely ?

Yes. Vaccines contribute to herd immunity.

Because in some critical care units half of patients fall in categories that do not currently qualify for vaccination (the priority lists), but they are still getting critically ill (not just requiring hospitalisation, but requiring critical care).
The new variant does change things.

Low risk is not no risk

While I understand what you mean about it only giving herd immunity if it prevents spread, the evidence does seem to be that you spread more if you have a higher viral load.
If you have no symptoms due to vaccine, your viral load will be much lower, and therefore your ability to spread will be less, we just don;t know if it will be zero.

Also, some young people do get sick, and some people end up with long covid.

We have plenty of illnesses that we vaccinate for where only a few people have serious side effects/die.

Not every person at higher risk will be able to get the vaccine. Hence the need to vaccinate as many people as possible for some semblance of herd immunity

It most likely does prevent spread, this just isn't proven yet. And from a political point of view, that's quite convenient!

Also, it's not just about death. Death might be rare in lower risk people, but long covid is much more common. And large swathes of the working population being out of action (even if that's only laid up in bed for a few days, rather than long covid) costs a lot more than a dose of the Oxford vaccine does.

I'm not sure but maybe some people have underlying conditions that are undetected?
Like when a young fit person has a heart attack playing football etc.

They can’t say they are sure that vaccination reduces transmission (because they don’t have evidence one way or the other yet), but they have said it’s likely it will. So vaccinating younger people should help to protect anyone who can’t have the vaccine or who has but is in the small proportion of people for whom it’s not effective.

Also younger people can get seriously ill with COVID and even if they aren’t seriously ill but ill enough to be off work for a week or two then we can’t afford to let it run rampant through the younger population because it could still cause issues with staffing public services and other workplaces.

Vaccinating as many people as possible will also help life return to normal.

At the moment, I am teaching online. Last term I was teaching face-to-face but everyone had to wear masks and sit two meters apart. It was an unsatisfactory experience for many reasons, not least because we could not hear each other easily. Neither of these scenarios are desirable long term.

If we are to go back to normal packed lecture halls, with a virus circulating that doesn't kill young people but can still keep them sick in bed for three weeks, the disruption will be immense. I have students who have missed a lot of teaching due to having Covid this academic year. And if I am off sick for three weeks, there is no one who can cover the specialised teaching I do, so students will again miss a good chunk of their module.

You can extrapolate this scenario to many other workforces and see that the economic impact of the virus will continue even after the vulnerable are vaccinated and no longer taking up hospital beds if we do not vaccinate widely.

If the vaccine prevents spread then I understand why. But so far they're saying it only prevents serious illness from covid. So if you're super low risk, why would you need to get it ? Genuine question. Please let me know if I've misunderstood something!

We just don’t know that yet. We need more data. Lots of scientists are pretty confident the vaccines will be shown to reduce transmission but you can’t know that before the mass vaccination programmes start.

It’s going to be bloody ages before people in their 20s with no health issues are offered a vaccine and by then it will be much clearer what effect they have on transmission.

Long covid.

And the possibility of lowering transmission.

I think providing those more vulnerable are vaccinated first then there is no reason not to vaccinate lower risk categories. As PP said, low risk is not no risk so why wouldn't you? I do wonder whether if this does end up being like the flu where you need a new one every year, it will become like that so certain categories can have for free whilst others can't (but that's pure speculation and simply pondering on my part).

I do not agree that people who fall into lower risk categories in terms of their likelihood to get severely ill from Covid should be bumped up the list dependent on their profession though, that includes keyworkers. Imo, a 25 year old, healthy teacher/police officer/shop worker and so on... Does not need to be bumped up the list ahead of someone more vulnerable to severe illness should they contract it. I know lots of people disagree with that though, but I think the way the government is prioritising vaccine roll out is fair and correct.

If we just let the virus run through the population, then more people in the younger age groups will get seriously ill and die - while the percentage is low, if you increase the number of people who catch the virus then the numbers will go up.

Risk of long term issues - can affect people of any age.

The more the virus spreads, the more it can mutate. If we leave a large portion of people unvaccinated, we will speed up the mutations that can then "escape" the vaccine and it will no longer protect the vulnerable people either.

We need to try everything that might reduce transmission because the more it spreads, the more opportunities it has to mutate. Vaccination might reduce spread.

If you don't vaccinate the low risk, you are providing a repository of hosts for the virus to replicate in, and the more replication you have, the more mutations you get. Since there is always a chance that a proportion of the mutations will be more deadly than our current one, it's sensible to reduce the scope for mutation.

I wish people would stop saying the vaccine doesn't stop you spreading it because that's not what they said.

Im 42 had covid last apr i think. I am not in the vax category at all. Mild asthma so not cv or ecv. I would not want that again! Its like your brain forgets how to breathe. Couldnt speak well enough to read a story sentence and this lasted till july.

Personally im much more concerned about the long term effects on the younger people
-cost

• They have much longer left (back to cost) and have to live with the consequences and bad health longer

Barring a miracle, we can't stamp out the virus and it's here for good. But unlike, say, flu, the vast majority of people have no immune defence to the virus. So even if we vaccinate the older and more vulnerable, we don't get herd immunity naturally, probably for a good many years to come. So vaccinating everyone possible is our artificial method of bypassing the natural process until such time as we have it in place. Eventually it will get to a place where, like flu, we only vaccinate those most at risk of serious outcomes, because it won't be necessary to do more. And if we hadn't had the ability to create vaccines, eventually we would have developed herd immunity naturally, just as we have for flu viruses. Remember, flu is a very serious disease and if we didn't have herd immunity and vaccines it would carry off many more of the elderly and vulnerable than it already does.

@stufftosay

why do they need to be vaccinated

I'm a bit confused. Why do you say they need to be vaccinated? They are not currently on the priority list.

I assume further down the line if vaccines are available some will want to have it, but why the need to comment?

@trulydelicious yeah I just mean eventually everyone will be vaccinated except children.

Because dying is not the only risk and there will be a high economic cost of people with Covid not recovering at all and being out of the workforce, which is more likely scenario for the younger people.

Tbh I Don't see them vaccinating everyone. My prediction is under 50 min health/social care workers/ecv etc won't get it

@JanewaysBun The government has said that they intend to offer the vaccine to every adult by September. I suspect that will be delayed a bit, but to avoid lockdowns next winter they really need as close to herd immunity as possible. We have already bought enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone, they just need to be made.

We need as many people to be vaccinated as possible in order to achieve herd immunity. The vulnerable are not the only people who die or get seriously ill from Covid, they're just more likely to die. Why not prevent a serious illness if we can?

Hey Siri what’s herd immunity?

@pissoffwhydontyou

Low risk is not no risk

This!