BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — With the COVID vaccine now widely available for most people, experts with the University of Alabama at Birmingham are starting to address vaccine hesitancy within the young population.
The population with the lowest rate of vaccine uptake is people ages 20 to 45, according to UAB infectious disease expert Dr. Mike Saag. One reason for this is because younger, unvaccinated people may feel as though they are safe from the virus, said Saag.
"'I don't think I'm gonna get it.' Okay, well you were lucky. But that doesn't mean you're going to be lucky next week," said Saag.
A member of the White House COVID-19 Taskforce, Dr. Cameron Webb, says that just because someone is young, that doesn't mean the virus won't affect them.
"We are also seeing younger folks who are needing to be hospitalized because the virus can do damage to anybody," said Webb. "It doesn't have that effect on everybody, but it can have that effect on anybody."
The COVID vaccine is a way to slow this hospitalization trend, according to Saag.
"The vaccine is not luck," said Saag. "The vaccine is science."
Some of those who remain hesitant are worried about long-term effects, such as the vaccine affecting fertility but medical experts say according to various studies, that is not the case.
"This vaccine does not have any impact on the reproductive system, it does not impact fertility in any way and that's true for all of our vaccines that are against infectious diseases. We have not seen any evidence that it impacts fertility," said Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, UAB's Chief of Hospital Medicine.
Both Webb and Saag agree that the main reason behind vaccine hesitancy is misinformation. The best way to combat this, they say, is by sharing accurate information with those who have questions.
"Just ask them what questions they have and direct them toward good information, because there's a lot of bad information out there," said Webb. "I think that when you do those things we've seen, that the majority of folks who are still on the fence, they actually break toward getting vaccinated once they get good information, so it's just a matter of getting good information out there."
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