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

@Joeblack066

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!

20 year old DS is being vaccinated today - booked within 5 mins of receiving his invitation. The above - plus a dollop of the altruistic wish to keep everyone else safe, which is why he also lobbied our MP for safer schools because I teach in one - is his motivation.

I asked my 23 year old a similar question. He was outraged that anyone might think his age group would be more hesitant. He says they are desperate for normality and this is the way out. Doesn't know anyone who won't jump at it. He's had both jabs.

Just asked 22 yr old niece in the US if she had it for social media reasons. She says it's because several of her friends who got Covid recovered fine, but had to take 3 weeks out to recover and missed tests or exams, which they now have to repeat. Meanwhile, those of her friends who took the vaccine had to take a day off for side effects. As she says" It's a no-brainer."

I still think she is having it to become an influencer though. Surely there can be no other reason young people do things.

Peer pressure
Fear tactics by media - both exaggerating the risk that this age group has and also the 'fear' that you can't travel / festivals etc without a vaccine passport
The stance that anyone believing they don't need it is an anti vaxxer / conspiracy theorist and selfish

Do all the people saying its peer pressure and social media etc actually have 18-30 year olds

Its just that most of us that do, know it’s nothing to do with peer pressure and social media

Because they want to resume their lives, be able to meet in large groups, sing, dance, snog, have sex with someone they just met, go on holiday, maybe even go visit elderly relatives who they haven't seen for a year.

@Manteo that comment is so small minded and ignorant.

Young people have sacrificed so much, lost jobs, missed out on key years of opportunity such as lack of job offers / promotions, been unable to get married or spend time dating. All for a disease which doesn’t really affect them. Also no nights out, travelling, having fun, being at university.

If you think they are getting jabbed for a social media ‘like’ you are very much mistaken, it’s to get lives back.

@1940s

Peer pressure Fear tactics by media - both exaggerating the risk that this age group has and also the 'fear' that you can't travel / festivals etc without a vaccine passport The stance that anyone believing they don't need it is an anti vaxxer / conspiracy theorist and selfish

Rubbish.

Much more common is the totally rational calculation that the quickest way to reach herd immunity - and therefore the return to greater normality - is vaccination of as many of the population as possible.

The young are, IME, much more selfless and more idealistic than we give them credit for, and are entirely able to take a step that is not necessarily in their own short term interest but is better for society as a whole.

At the idea that young people have the vaccine because of peer pressure or social media. Do those poster have adult sons and daughters?

All the young people I know including my own DC are responsible and keen to do the right thing. Foreign travel doesn't come into it.

They want to get back to proper uni, start their careers or in DSs case actually go into work and meet real people instead of working from home.

I agree, @cantkeepawayforever.

Most twenty-somethings wouldn’t get extremely ill, but who’d want to risk a massive outbreak due to lack of herd immunity? Look at India, for example. As PP’s have said, younger people have lost out on so much already.

So that they don’t catch Covid.
So that they can’t pass COVID to parents or Grandparents (more likely to still have Grandparents)

The vaccines don’t stop anyone from catching covid, but have been shown to reduce symptoms and possibly reduce transmission rates.

So that they can go to large scale events
So that they can travel abroad.
And if these are the genuine reasons, it shows they have been coerced.

I think the people who are saying young people have vaccine because of peer pressure or social media are purely reflecting their own thought process.

I'm in the 20-25 age group and waiting with bated breath for them to get to us. Partly because I want us all to be safe and protected, and partly (mostly if I'm honest) because I need to travel to Europe soon for work and won't be able to without the jab

@1940s

Peer pressure Fear tactics by media - both exaggerating the risk that this age group has and also the 'fear' that you can't travel / festivals etc without a vaccine passport The stance that anyone believing they don't need it is an anti vaxxer / conspiracy theorist and selfish

All of this, 100%. There's no real logical reason for a healthy young person to be desperate to have this jab. Same as there's absolutely no justification for giving it to kids - but they'll attempt to sell a narrative that makes it happen, so kids can be human shields for the very frail and those who refuse to vaccinate for their own good.

Same as there's absolutely no justification for giving it to kids

Except that they currently have to miss 10 days of school if in contact with a positive case. The obvious benefit of double vaccination for all would be an end to self-isolation of contacts, leaving it only required for confirmed positive individuals and their households.

kids can be human shields for the very frail and those who refuse to vaccinate for their own good.

That is exactly why we vaccinate primary school children for flu, so there is a precedent that absolutely nobody has kicked up a stink about.....

For many it will be because they want to do their bit in the same way that most have largely stuck to covid rules even though they weren't at risk.

As a healthy 25 year old I could probably give you about 100 reasons!
Because we don't want covid? Honestly I'd get a vaccine against the common cold if I could, no one wants to be ill. Even if its not gonna kill you it's not pleasant to have covid.

Because we want our lives back. And can see the only way is mass vaccination.

Because most of us have parents in their late 50s/60s and grandparents in their 80/90s. We want to safely see them, and protect society which we've been told to protect for 15 months now

For the good of society.

I also don't know anyone of my generation who's anti-vaxx. The MMR vaccine controversy was taught quite heavily in schools and how the autism link was wrong, how to analyse the data etc. I also think most of my friends my age have been by far the best at following the rules, maybe we just do what we're told who knows?

Also because by now so many people have had the vaccine its not so much of an unknown anymore. Millions of people have had the vaccine so I think most people feel quite comfortable having it

Also having covid even if it doesn't make you ill is a pain in the bloody arse. 10 days isolation is a ball ache at best but for many can cause financial difficulties and difficulties at work. Anything I can do to reduce my chance of having to isolate for 10 days is a win win.

We all do things every day to prevent ourselves not being ill. Do you eat raw chicken because salmonella probably won't kill you? No of course not. Yes covid probably won't kill me, it probably won't hospitalise me but I still don't want it and am happy I can prevent it

I had it last year and it was not a pleasant 2 weeks. Much worse than a stomach bug or cold. Worse for me than flu because I was fluey with breathing difficulties which was quite scary. Have only just got over my post-viral symptoms. I'm not up for doing that again tbh.

There's no real logical reason for a healthy young person to be desperate to have this jab. Same as there's absolutely no justification for giving it to kids - but they'll attempt to sell a narrative that makes it happen, so kids can be human shields for the very frail and those who refuse to vaccinate for their own good.

Nope.
They see many, many reason for and none against for an hour's inconvenience to get a vaccine.

Because it was about time. We have had to sit and watch others get theirs and just wait and wait and listen to how great it is and how much safer they all are while we wait and wait.

Doing the schools runs everyday with children across two schools and just waiting and waiting. With people standing closer and closer in shops and less and less wearing masks.

Of course we clicked and booked as soon as we could.

Perhaps the ones that were excited went out to get their jabs and the ones that were not stayed at home?

My young adults are keen for things to get back to normal.

The people I know in that age group have been waiting and wondering if they'd be offered vaccines at all. A large proportion of those have either been working throughout people facing so have carried extra risk or in hospitality where they've barely been able to work. They want their own peace of mind that they won't likely get it nor will they pass it onto older and/or more vulnerable family members.

The biggest vaccine hesitance I've seen has been more in the 35-50 group. Not sure that's played out nationally or just locally though.

[quote Confusedaboutlots]@PixieDust28 why would anyone want to risk being locked up again?!

simply wondering how the ONS and other studies got it so wrong...

nothing more to my question than that....[/quote]
To be fair, you don’t actually know yet that the studies have “got it so wrong” - the article you referenced says that hesitancy in that age group is one in six, so not massive, just more than in other age groups - and being hesitant doesn’t mean they won’t actually have the vaccination at all.