Data show young adults (ages 20-29) are alarmingly under vaccinated. And they lag behind other age groups.
Back in September 2020 before vaccinations were available, we noted a spike of new cases within this age group. But it is difficult to reach them with health messages.
In the United States, vaccinations is available to everyone 12 and older.
We looked at age groups experiencing new infections and compared it with vaccination rates by age group.
When vaccination rollout began, there was a big push to vaccinate older Americans. And data indicate this drive has been very successful. This effort has been widely supported on the ground by physicians and others.
And today, schools are pushing students 12 and older to get the shot. Similarly, colleges and universities are making similar campaigns.
But as we have noted before, communication with young adults is difficult. And there is no universal institutional or other method to engage them directly. Thus, reaching them with health messages is difficult.
And this creates a challenge for public health and health communication experts. More, our body of work documents that this not new in the pandemic. But the communication gap was identified early.
This requires the need to develop new communication strategies.
Photo courtesy MentatDGT