Young people who might be skipping out on the COVID-19 vaccine may want to change their mind because of long COVID-19, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins recently told CNN.
Collins said some young people might not want to get the COVID-19 vaccine for different reasons. But they should reconsider the idea because they could be infected with COVID-19 symptoms for the long term, which would change their lives.
- “One critical way to prevent long COVID is to prevent COVID itself,” he told CNN.
- “Even for young people who consider their risk of severe COVID to be low, the long-term consequences can be quite serious,” he added. “So long COVID represents one more reason to encourage everyone age 16 and over to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, people have suffered symptoms beyond their original infection of the coronavirus. “Long-COVID” or long-hauler symptoms can include such issues as fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, hoarse voice, difficulty breathing, brain fog and more, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.
Should young people get the COVID-19 vaccine?
Young people are under the microscope right now when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast host Joe Rogan told listeners that young people should not get vaccinated. He said young and healthy people don’t need to worry about COVID-19, according to CNBC.
But Dr. Anthony Fauci told the “Today” show that young people need to take COVID-19 seriously.
- “You’re worried about yourself getting infected and likelihood that you’re not going to get symptoms,” he said. “But you can get infected and will get infected if you put yourself at risk.”
- “So if you want to only worry about yourself and not society, then that’s OK,” Fauci said. “But if you’re saying to yourself, even if I get infected, I could do damage to somebody else even if I have no symptoms at all, and that’s the reason why you’ve got to be careful and get vaccinated.”