Youth keen for vaccine

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This article was published 31/05/2021 (1747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before booking an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine, Muneeza Mohammad did her research — in fact, she put together an entire research project on the shot for Grade 11 biology.

“People my age should definitely look into how the vaccine works in the body. Don’t just get the vaccine for the heck of it. Whenever you ingest or inject anything into your body, you should know the impacts it will have,” said Muneeza, 17, after getting her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Friday.

The high schooler walked out of the RBC Convention Centre in downtown Winnipeg with a smile hidden beneath her mask and a green sticker on her t-shirt. She described feeling immense relief after the jab.

New research out of the University of Manitoba suggests Muneeza is among the majority of youth between the ages of 16 and 21 who are keen to get a vaccine to protect themselves and their loved ones against the novel coronavirus.

A survey of 664 teenagers and young adults in Manitoba, which was conducted via online questionnaire between November and December 2020, found that 65.4 per cent of respondents were in favour of getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

“In my mind, it’s a pretty good place to start if we could get 65 per cent of this age group just willing to go and do it,” said Tracie Afifi, a professor of community health sciences at the U of M and principal investigator for the study.

A total of 26.1 per cent indicated they were unsure about whether they would get inoculated against the virus, while 8.5 per cent said they would not get a shot.

The study participants are part of an ongoing research project Afifi — a Canada Research Chair in Childhood Adversity and Resilience — is doing on the experiences and adversity of youth.

Notably, vaccines were not widely available to the public when the study was undertaken, although Afifi said she does not think the overall results would be much different were a poll conducted now.

The U of M researcher said she was motivated to research this particular age group because these Manitobans often work in the service sector and have other front-line roles that put them at greater risk for contracting the virus, while some research has shown members in this age category are less likely to adhere to public health guidelines.

The top three reasons reported as factors preventing respondents from getting immunized include concerns around safety, a lack of knowledge about the vaccine, and feeling it would not work.

Other factors raised were minimal concern about getting COVID-19, the potential cost of a vaccine, immunization access issues, time required to get a shot, health conditions that prevent immunization, prior infection with COVID-19, anti-vaccine sentiments, religious reasons, and needle phobia.

“If we can understand why they might be hesitant, we can start having conversations to help them become more confident in the decision and hopefully change their minds to go get vaccinated,” said Afifi, adding public health messaging on vaccine uptake needs to be short and simple, and it should meet youth where they are — be that at school, a post-secondary campus or on social media.

The study findings indicate youth who come from lower-income households, who have parents with lower education levels, and whose families experienced more financial burden throughout the pandemic were more likely to turn down a vaccine.

The same goes for individuals who have experienced adversity related to household substance use, banking history, peer victimization, foster care, and contact with child protective organizations, throughout their lifetimes.

What Afifi found interesting in her research was that young men and women were just as likely to say yes to getting a vaccine, but there were different reasons between the sexes when it came to reasoning around being unsure.

Male respondents often said they might not get a jab because they were not concerned about getting COVID-19. Women, however, were more likely to say they did not have enough information to make a decision.

Outside the RBC Convention Centre, Tim Gerbrandt said he did not have to think twice about booking an appointment to get a shot Friday because he has a lot of trust in the health-care system. “There’s not enough side effects that it’s not worth it,” the 17-year-old added.

As of Sunday, 18.7 per cent of youth aged 10 to 19 in Manitoba had been partially vaccinated against COVID-19. Uptake among people between the ages of 20 and 29 is 42.7 per cent. The 844,084 doses delivered up to Sunday represent at least first-dose vaccination of 64.8 per cent of the population aged 18 and older, and 60.9 per cent of Manitobans 12 and older.

Appointments were only made available to all residents who are 12 and older in the province on May 14.

 

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie