25-29 year olds - why so keen for jabs

[Confusedaboutlots]

I will start this by saying I’m an avid pro-vaxxer and I was ecstatic to hear that 1 million 25-29 year olds booked in for their jabs on the first day they could (more than on any other day). Today there was a huge queue for vaccinations at a pop up clinic in Sheffield - most people waiting seemed in their 20s. People were saying they were very excited and couldn’t wait for the vaccine.

But I am also very surprised they did. I was expecting healthy 25 year olds to be more relaxed about covid purely based on morbidity/hospitalisation stats - and they are presumably one of the age groups already socialising a lot. Also there’s no talk yet of vaccine passports or vaccines being needed for domestic events.

I’m mid 30s and have generally been more concerned about covid from a personal perspective than my close friends and so I was very grateful and excited for the jab - many of my friends less so as they feel it’s a duty.

Please could someone let me know why they think 25-29 year olds were so keen on being vaccinated - keener than other age groups it seems. I like to think it’s because of altruistic reasons - that would be very heartwarming

thanks

TBH I’d be more inclined to wonder why any of them aren’t bothering, if it’s offered.
The sooner most are vaccinated, and so a lot less likely to be symptomless spreaders, the sooner we can finally get back to more or less normal.

My husband and most of his friends are in this age bracket and have all enthusiastically booked appointments. Setting aside the ones with underlying health conditions, they mainly just want things to get back to normal, businesses to be able to stay open and to be able to travel down the line - vaccination will help lower case numbers and reduce the risk of restrictions staying in place longer term or further restrictions being reintroduced. They’re also not clear if self-isolation will continue to be standard protocol down the line - even if you don’t get seriously sick with COVID, if catching it means having to isolate for 10 days that becomes seriously disruptive. I know my husband is worried that if he catches it around the time our baby is due, I might need to give birth alone - vaccination will help reduce the risk of that happening.

Because I want my life back.

Because they're not on MN?

I have two sons in the age bracket in question. They both jumped at the chance to get vaccinated because they felt it is "the right thing to do".

They are also both wanting to travel abroad so I expect this was also a big factor in their decision.

Because they’ve missed out on enough and have the intelligence to realise that more vaccinated people = quicker return to normality. It’s not that hard to understand!

I did wonder if it was for social media reasons.

You actually think during a global pandemic which has affected and killed people in numbers we have never seen before, led to unprecedented lockdowns, leaving people in a serious financial position, young people are so shallow they only want a vaccine so they can put it on their Instagram?

That says a lot more about your skewed view of the world than it does about our brilliant young people.

Also those saying it’s a social media thing I’m 28 the only person I’ve seen post about it on socials is anti COVID etc and posts regularly going on planes etc with no mask on. On the other hand my grandparents and in laws have all posted it on social media they are all 55+

This. I find it hilarious that young-ish people are painted as being social media obsessed when it comes to Covid. I’m 32 and have friends from mid 20s to mid 30s. Literally no one is banging on about Covid on Instagram, everyone’s too busy sharing pictures of their dogs/walks/meals. Meanwhile over on Facebook, every baby boomer I’ve ever been acquainted with is banging on about the pandemic.

Dd at 19 had her first vaccine a few weeks ago, she just said its to help herself and others, she also said that all her friends at the start were saying NO because of social media.

Ds2 at 18 is having his this week, he’s asleep so can’t ask why

Ds1 at 22 is pissed off that he hasn’t had his yet and has no idea when

Meanwhile over on Facebook, every baby boomer I’ve ever been acquainted with is banging on about the pandemic.

I find it hilarious that you think your anecdata does anything other than show your contempt for the older generation.

If all those people have been “banging on” about the pandemic, perhaps it’s because they have been alone, isolated from their children and grandchildren for a very long time.

Or, perhaps you see what you want to see, to suit your own biases.

My 25 year old ds booked on the first day and is due to receive his first jab on Tuesday. For him it is mainly because he wants things to get back to normal and he is desperate for his social life to return to how it use to be. He thinks that this will happen quicker with a high percentage of adults vacinated.

I'm 30 and had covid last year and even though my case would be classed as 'mild' it took two weeks to be able to get out and about again (which I suppose doesn't really matter as I had to isolate anyway) but for months and months I felt mildly unwell and it impacted on my daily life. I'm not sure even now whether I'm 100% back to normal, as I've kind of forgotten what normal felt like!

So whatever the reason, it's great young people want to be jabbed.

Simply 'not dying' from the virus isn't good enough. Okay, so you're very unlikely to die in this age group, but it can still affect you in awful, long lasting ways.

Long covid - it’s still impacting young people

I volunteered at a vaccine centre so was vaccinated back in January when I was 29. I was thrilled, as my DM is CEV and I was in a support bubble with her. I was always panicking about inadvertently spreading COVID to her, especially as at the time, there was a lot of talk about asymptomatic COVID in young people. Being vaccinated relieved my anxiety about that.

My friends are now all getting vaccinated and they’re super excited about it for similar reasons. They feel they can now visit elderly relatives and are a lot more comfortable and less worried about spreading COVID. None of us cared about our own health, we were all anxious about inadvertently spreading COVID to more vulnerable members of the population. Also, we’re all very aware that the quicker people get vaccinated, the quicker things will return to normal!

Plus I had a friend who caught covid at the beginning of the first wave mid 20s she was desperately ill - said she wouldn’t wish it on her worst enemy - we didn’t hear from her at work for 3 full days and got very worried she eventually got in touch to say she has slept most of the time and was too weak to use her own phone

@ICECream821

Plus I had a friend who caught covid at the beginning of the first wave mid 20s she was desperately ill - said she wouldn’t wish it on her worst enemy - we didn’t hear from her at work for 3 full days and got very worried she eventually got in touch to say she has slept most of the time and was too weak to use her own phone

We think dd got it back in march 2020

She was too ill to watch telly or use her phone

So they can mix more with family and friends? Same as the rest of us.

*XenoBitch

Peer pressure, and not being able to go abroad otherwise. I doubt many people have it for altruistic reasons at all*

Nice perception of young people there. Ds is 26, he and his mates have been really cautious protecting their parents. They are absolutely having it for altruistic reasons.

@Confusedaboutlots - my children are teenagers under the age of 18 and they want the vaccine. I’m more dubious on their behalf, because I’m their mother, so would rather the whole of the rest of the world protected them by getting vaccinated in the hope that’s enough and they don’t have to do it. The reality is, though, they neither expect covid nor the vaccines to do them much harm so aren’t too bothered, they buy into the concept of vaccination as being a good thing that can save multiple lives, and they don’t want their lives messed up for any longer than necessary. Waiting for the rest of the world to get vaccinated before they can resume the lives they hope to live, they will be waiting a very long time. They want to travel, they want undisrupted access to school, they want to go out and socialise, they want employment. They think there are bigger things to worry about than covid 19 vaccines. If, having been vaccinated, their schooling is still disrupted, they still cannot travel anywhere, they are still unable to socialise freely and entire industries are still prevented from operating and employing people, they will no doubt be very unhappy about it!

@callmemaybee

Because they don’t want to be excluded from society frankly, they’re not at risk of severe Covid

Let’s be honest, young people have sacrificed the most. Your teens and 20s are formative years of your life - of course they want to get back to normal. In comparison turning 35 to 36 or 50 to 51 isn’t a formative year - older generations haven’t missed out on a key time in their lives.

Hmm I'm not sure I entirely agree. I have a friend who is 42 who has had to wait for so much longer than usual for IVF because it's been impacted by covid. Time isn't on her side. Elderly people at the end of their lives who don't have the luxury of a year or so to just waste. It's been shit for most people, certainly not just younger people who can jump right back into life. The above examples may have missed out on time/opportunities that they'll never get back.

Literally so I can go abroad. I do think vaccine passports will come in for international travel at some point once we stop all the constant testing. Everyone I know did it for the same reason.

Dd was in that Sheffield queue today as were a number of her friends (they all went separately and didn't know each were there until they saw their social media posts.

Almost all we saw were student age and therefore not yet eligible to book - the 18-24 age group.

Doors opened at 9am but the queue started to form at 6am. Dd arrived at 8am and there were already hundreds ahead of her, and hundreds more joined behind. The demand was massive. Many from the front got sent to two other venues who opened as overflows. The first venue managed to source some additional vaccines. They were then counting and sent some not that far behind Dd to other places for tomorrow.

Dd queued for just over 4 hours to be vaccinated. Those the end of the queue who were able to stay will have had about a 5-6 hour wait. Those at the front will have queued for almost 3 hours, mostly before the doors opened.

These young people willingly got out of bed early in a weekend morning to queue for hours, forming orderly queues themselves, with a jovial atmosphere and no complaining to get their chance of a vaccine. They politely ignored the anti Vaxxer group which came round telling them the jab would kill them or leave them with heart defects. They chatted happily with strangers queuing alongside them.

^Dd had her friends want it for a range of reasons:
They want to go on holidays, to festivals, to clubs.
They may have seen family ill with covid.
They may have vulnerable family and friends (vaccines sometimes aren't effective for more vulnerable people)
They know that whilst the UK may not implement vaccine passports then other countries might do. Already some European countries and the US have slightly different rules for fully vaccinated people.^

By the way...

If in Sheffield and didn't manage to access it yesterday but still want to - the Octagon centre has changed its access rules from Monday. It will now be a walk in centre for all adults aged 18+, not just the 25+ groups.

My 22 year old DD queued for 5 hours yesterday in Sheffield and got hers. It was nothing to do with social media or peer pressure. She works in a busy, public-facing job and she doesn't want to catch covid and be I'll herself or bring it back home to other family (particularly with increasing spread of Delta variant). It's very simple. She's understandably worried and the vaccine reduces the danger.

Let’s be honest, young people have sacrificed the most

Let’s be honest, the people who have died sacrificed the most.

The older generation have struggled to be away from family, isolated in the later years of their life, missing their grandchildren growing up, not being able to meet new family members.

Those next down have had to juggle WFH and home schooling kids, trying to care for their elderly parents, worrying about their health and how to support them, many have lost their jobs. They have been working at the sharp end of the NHS, seeing the worst effects of how this pandemic is affecting people.

School aged kids have struggled to adapt to do online schooling, seen exam results impacting on their life choices. Younger school kids have lost out on many formative experiences.

Disabled and vulnerable people have been further isolated, not been able to get the care services they need, been unable to get out and about for their health.

Everyone has sacrificed things this year, and their lives have been impacted in so many different ways it is impossible to single out one generational group and say they have been hit worse than any other.

Thinking more about this, I also was keen to get my vaccine as soon as possible because people just aren't careful anymore.

A lot of the older people who had had both of their vaccines don't care about staying two metres away anymore. In the supermarkets people lean right over you to reach food rather than waiting for you to move or saying excuse me. As more people have their vaccines, they are more careless about protecting those of us who haven't been offered it yet. I feel much more at risk now than I did at the start, despite knowing that i would probably be fine if I caught it.