Generation Z wants to “wait a bit” for the COVID vaccine. Experts say there is no time to waste.

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Johnson Shaw, a nursing student at Southern Nevada College, administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the UNLV Vaccination Center in Las Vegas on April 26.

Patricia Smithson, 23, thought about her aunt in New York who died alone of COVID-19 when she decided to get her vaccine.

Benny Romero, 24, hasn’t found time to get it yet and may wait a little longer.

Gracie Poynter, 21, knows her concerns about the safety of the shots could jeopardize her health care job.

They were all part of a group that was once considered a low priority in rolling out a vaccine in the country: Generation Z, loosely defined as those in their mid-20s and younger. But now that vaccines are more readily available to Americans age 12 and older, the nation’s delayed vaccination rate among young adults is raising alarms.

It’s an increasingly urgent concern as the infectious delta variant is particularly prevalent in the United States and schools and colleges are ready to return to in-person classes this fall.

“Now is the window of opportunity,” Judy Klein — president of Unity Consortium, a nonprofit that advocates for vaccine protection for teens and young adults — told USA TODAY. If high rates of unvaccinated students show up in schools, that’s a recipe for a COVID outbreak and yet another semester derailed by the virus, she fears.

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A report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in June found that only about half of adults age 24 or younger “have been vaccinated or are definitely planning to get vaccinated.” This report noted the group’s lower vaccination rates compared to other age groups, but noted that a significant number of young people have yet to make up their mind.

Patricia Smithson, 23, a health care worker from Orlando, Florida, overcame her initial reluctance to get a COVID-19 vaccine after witnessing the deaths of people in her personal life.

Smithson, a health care worker from Orlando, Florida, was once among them. She was initially cautious about upping her sleeve for the COVID-19 vaccine due to its rapid development and release.

“Suddenly, this vaccine appeared, out of nowhere,” Smithson said. “And it was made in less than a year; it was just a little hesitation about what I was putting into my body.”

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The turning point for Smithson was the number of people who died of COVID-19 in her lifetime, including her Aunt Gloria. Smithson said she realized she “knows more people who have died from COVID than people who have died who have received the vaccine.”

The memory of her aunt’s last days is painful: “She was in the apartment sick for three days before they rushed her to the hospital,” Smithson said. “And before they take it, tell my uncles and my cousins, ‘Say your last goodbye because this may be the last you’ll see.'” ‘ She died shortly thereafter.

“She was alone; no one was with her. A large number of family members could not even go to the funeral because of everything that was going on. It was very tragic.”

COVID vaccine benefits vs side effects

Smithson’s personal experience helped ease her fears about the vaccine, but millions of young Americans remain unsure. Experts told USA TODAY that young adults are facing a torrent of vaccine misinformation from social media and a long-running narrative that COVID-19 primarily affects older adults.

They are being asked to make the decision amid an astonishing return to a more normal life as the nation dramatically lowers pandemic restrictions.

Poynter, who works in Indiana as a patient care assistant, said she is generally not opposed to vaccinations. But the COVID vaccine is too new for her to feel comfortable having it in her body.

Romero — who works at UPS in Texas — would likely get the vaccine, but decided to put it off. He likened the decision to waiting to buy a new game console to “wait a little while all the bugs are gone.”

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Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data shows that these concerns are common: More than half of young people surveyed who were hesitant or likely to get vaccinated said they were concerned about potential side effects. A similar number said they planned to wait to see if the vaccine was safe.

Amy Middleman, who practices adolescent medicine with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and is a board member of the Unity Consortium, will urge young people with these concerns to consider the documented health consequences of COVID-19.

“It is clear that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks at this time,” she said. Some of the concerns about the long-term side effects you hear from patients are rumors that are not supported by science.

Middleman said young people with these concerns should feel confident in the “incredibly comprehensive” review process for vaccines and safety oversight.

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Tiffany Menendez, 24, had a similar thought process when she decided to get the vaccine.

The side effects she experienced were fleeting: “I did get a little sick, only for a day or two, but I hear with COVID…you get sick for a long time and you have side effects that linger in your body longer than just a week or two, maybe,” Menendez told USA TODAY. for life.

Masked students cross an intersection on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, on September 10, 2020.

“So, it is very important that I get vaccinated… and not have COVID in my body.”

These concerns are well-founded, said Dr. Shira Abilis, an infectious disease specialist at UCSD.

She remembers the horrific scenes of people in their thirties on ventilators who died. Others suffered from “inexplicable fatigue” for months.

Meanwhile, the side effects of the vaccine can be controlled with Tylenol. “It’s not the case with COVID,” she said.

Motives for the “altruism” vaccine for Generation Z

Many members of Generation Z think about their health when deciding to get vaccinated, but concern for the well-being of others motivates some to get vaccinated.

Brittney Buck, an epidemiologist and co-author of the CDC report, told USA TODAY that the study found that protecting friends and family was a top priority for young people.

Klein said the motives of this generation are often “altruistic.”

Caroline Allen, a 21-year-old former student at the University of Central Florida, has gladly upped her sleeve for a COVID-19 vaccine as a gift for her grandmother who died of the virus.

Eileen Murray, 23, has felt the weight of protecting her Atlanta parents, who are in their 60s and more vulnerable to the virus, throughout the pandemic. This continued even after she was vaccinated due to the state’s low vaccination rates.

“I think being responsible for someone else’s health is very stressful and worrying about the possibility of that happening – just as a small mistake you make can have severe disastrous effects on your parents’ health or your grandparents’ health,” she said.

Caroline Allen, 21, said she has taken every precaution to stay healthy and relied on the guidance of the scientific community to weather the uncertainty of the pandemic. Allen said she “worn my mask like it was my skin,” kept her social circle small and refrained from buying fast food from restaurants.

But when she was vaccinated in Orlando, she wasn’t thinking to herself: “I’ve been vaccinated [the vaccine] To my grandmother,” Allen told USA TODAY.

Allen’s grandmother, Dorothy, who was supposed to turn 100 in September, died of COVID-19 in January.

“She kept saying, ‘Okay, I’ll be the first in line when they hand out those shots,’ so I got them for her.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID: Gen Z vaccine in no hurry — but do they have time to wait?

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