‘Not a high risk’: Three young adults explain why they didn’t get a booster shot

Banin Hassan says there is only one reason why he would consider getting another shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to boost his first two doses.

“If they make it mandatory and restrict activities or travel from my life again, I would consider it because I love to travel,” says the 27-year-old Hamilton consultant.

“Other than that, there is nothing that can make me change my mind.”

Canadian government data shows that young adults lag behind other age groups in receiving momentum. About 35 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 have received a third dose. That goes up to 42 percent for people ages 30 to 39. On average, 72 percent of Canadians over the age of 40 have received theirs.

A Calgary doctor who has studied vaccine hesitancy says he’s not surprised young adults are lagging behind.

“Even before the booster, with the second and first doses, we saw much lower absorption in the 25-year-old (group) compared to the 65-plus community,” says Dr. Jia Hu, who leads a group that advises on how to increase recruitment.

Hu is the CEO of 19 to Zero, made up of doctors, nurses, economists and other experts, whose goal is to help governments, businesses and communities across Canada build confidence in vaccines.

“One thing that allowed us to increase vaccine acceptance rates in the 30-fold range was vaccination mandates, because I don’t think there’s any hesitation in this population (about the shots themselves),” says Hu. “In that age group, people are less concerned that COVID will cause serious illness. The mandates allow them to live life again.”

Hassan’s partner, Humam Yahya, 28, acknowledges the benefits of vaccines in reducing serious illness, but questions the need to continue injecting.

“You just get a booster every eight months or 10 months and there’s no end date,” he says. “He’s just taking these vaccines … and I’m sure they have great benefits, but we also don’t know the long-term side effects.”

He says that at first he was afraid of contracting COVID-19 because he has asthma.

“I protected myself a lot. But then a lot of friends who got COVID and its side effects and what they got was nowhere near what I thought it would be, so I lost a lot of fear there.”

Hassan adds that some distant relatives died at the beginning of the pandemic. More recently, he observed close family members and friends who had COVID-19, but with mild symptoms.

“My father has kidney failure and is on his fourth dose. I fully understand that he needs to do that because his health is a little more compromised. I would even encourage him to keep getting it. For me, I don’t find COVID to be a high risk right now,” says Hassan.

She and Yahya say some friends, particularly women, had bad reactions to the vaccine, making the couple wary of too many doses.

Liza Samadi, 25, a pharmacy assistant from Hamilton, says she hasn’t gone in for a booster because it’s not required.

“I was very lazy,” he says between laughs.

“I just kept procrastinating, but then I ended up getting COVID (in January), so I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I’m stimulated enough for now, so there’s no need for me to catch it.'”

Samadi says her entire family has had COVID-19, so they are not in a hurry to get a booster, but would opt for a third shot if it was mandatory.

Hu says he “strongly, strongly, strongly recommends” all Canadians to get the shot because the protection from two doses wears off after about six months “and the booster brings it back right away.”

He says that while booster uptake in young adults is too low, he doesn’t think 18- to 29-year-olds with COVID-19 are overwhelming hospitals.

But he adds: “Do I think some 25-year-olds could still be hospitalized and die?” he says.

“Yes, I do.”