Get the jab, A&E doctor tells the young

ACONSULTANT at the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s A&E department said he and his colleagues are still treating usually fit and well young people who have contracted Covid.

“The one thing they say to me is ‘I wish I’d got a jab’,” said Andy Virr, who is also a councillor and Cabinet member for adults at Cornwall Council. Mr Virr is urging everyone to get a jab as infections continue to rise in Cornwall.

“Coronavirus is spreading still through our community. The way out of this for all of us is to get vaccinated,” he said. “The vaccine’s been rolling out really well through the county but there’s still more work to be done. Book a vaccine today – often there are clinics where you can just walk in and get jabbed.

“If you’re in the 40 to 49 age group, then we’re due our second jab. If you’re in the 18 to 30 group then please take up the first offer of the vaccine, it’s really important to stop it spreading around our community. It’s having a big impact on our local hospitality industry, so you can help by getting vaccinated.”

Mr Virr added: “I still see young adults coming in, normally fit and well, with coronavirus requiring hospital treatment, and the one thing they say to me is ‘I wish I’d got a jab’.

“So let’s all get vaccinated, let’s enjoy the sunshine and let’s get through this Covid pandemic together.” Mr Virr’s comments come as Cornwall’s infection rates are reaching record levels, now at 391.9 per 100,000 – with cases still climbing, and having nearly doubled in a week. More walk-in vaccine clinics in the county have been announced as a result.

There is a clinic today, from 9.30am to 5.30pm on Lemon Quay, Truro, outside the Hall for Cornwall, for 18s and over to get their first Pfizer dose. Next Tuesday (July 27) sees a walk-in clinic at the Seafood Cornwall

training hub in Newlyn, 1.30pm to 5.30pm for 18s and over, to get their first and second Pfizer doses.

People will need to have had their first dose at least eight weeks before to have a second dose. The clinic is between 1.30pm and 5.30pm. There’s no parking on the site, but there is a pay and display car park opposite.

There are 20 people currently in hospital with Covid-19 in Cornwall, up from 19 as of July 13.

SMALL differences in the percentage of the population vaccinated against coronavirus can make a big difference to the health of the population as a whole. So the closer we can get to 100% the better the chances we have of turning the corner on rising cases, as well as reducing the risk that the NHS will be overwhelmed by patients and deaths will start to rise again.

So it is hugely disappointing to hear that two recent studies have shown a fall in confidence about the jab among the under-25s – the last group that needs to get vaccinated.

One reason for the almost universal take up of the vaccination among the oldest age groups was almost certainly the level of risk those over 80 face if they contract Covid-19.

It follows, therefore, that those age groups who feel far less vulnerable might be less likely to want the jab.

But, perhaps surprisingly, it is not confidence that they won’t get sick that has been the main driver of vaccine hesitancy among the young, the survey by my GP – the UK’s largest NHS accredited independent healthcare management app – found.

The major concern those supposedly fearless under-25s had was that the vaccine had been produced and tested far too quickly for their liking, followed by worries over long-term side effects and concerns – among those who were pregnant – about what the vaccine might do to their unborn babies.

No one should dismiss these fears. Everyone has the right to be reassured that the medicines they are taking – whatever they are for – have been thoroughly tested and shown to be safe. But it is difficult to think of many medical interventions that have been so fully and thoroughly put through their paces as the vaccines currently approved for protection against coronavirus.

It is true the initial development and testing of the vaccines was swift. It had to be. But since the first jabs were administered in the UK before Christmas, the number of people, here and around the world, who have been jabbed runs into the hundreds of millions. Those incidents where something has gone wrong when measured against such a huge number are vanishingly small.

The idea – still harboured by some – that there has been some sort of massive conspiracy to cover up cases of damaging side-effects makes no sense. How could a secret that big possibly be kept with that many people given the jab? And, in any case, what would be the point in continuing with a vaccination programme that made people ill? Again, logic defies such a scenario.

We’re sure those young people dubious about the jab are not conspiracy theorists or rabid anti-vaxxers. Some might just not have found the time to go and get vaccinated; others might find it difficult to get to one of the many vaccination centres.

But for their own good, and the good of the rest of us, they really should make the effort.

In today’s WMN an A & E consultant in Cornwall says the one thing the young people he is treating in hospital all say is ‘I wish I’d had the jab...’

For those who are still dithering we say, do it. Every arm jabbed takes the pressure off and lowers the risk of a third wave. It makes sense.