Young people taking up vaccines are fighting for our future
We have many unkind words about young people but their appetite for the Covid jab is showing up more senior generations.
Patrick Carlyon
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Old people have lots of adjectives for young people. Thoughtless. Unwise. Ungrateful.
But a few other descriptors ought to be added: words that describe what young people are rather than what they are not, such as helpful, and considerate, and generous.
Their rush to get vaccinated – any shot will do – conflicts with many of their parents and grandparents. They strive for a recovery – call it nation-building – when their elders have not.
Take one 17-year-old. He is counting the days until his birthday.
He has noted that Moderna is approved for 16 and up in the US. But he would get AstraZeneca today if he could.
His risk versus reward equation is simple. He is in more danger of falling down the stairs to his death than dying from a shot.
The defensive crouch of living in fear of what could happen is not for him, nor the 15,000 young Victorians who rushed for an AZ jab the moment the official advice changed.
He has schoolies to consider, and going to the footy, and seeing his girlfriend whenever he likes.
He wants to be a “have”, to pursue the kind of coming-of-age rituals that his parents took for granted, because we live in a world, right now, where everyone is a “have not”.
Only 11 per cent of Australians will refuse a vaccination, according to a Newspoll, compared with almost one in four at the start of 2021.
The bleak certainty of ongoing confinement has hardened in recent times.
Lockdowns are the easy option. You need ID to buy a litre of milk in regional Victoria. The cage of Covid equally traps us all. There is no consistent prospect of travel or cinemas or concerts or school formals, for that matter.
This insight is why 2366 under 40s got AZ on Monday in Victoria. It’s why the AZ first jab numbers tripled between this Monday and the last.
Old person Martin Foley, who can’t even do social media, is the health minister and an easy target for grief.
On Tuesday, he got it right when he described the younger response as “informed” and “strong”.
He said they were doing it for the greater good.
“They know it’s not just about them …” he said. “They’re doing it for themselves, doing it for their family and doing it for their local community …”
Young people have shown a fortitude that their forebears have lacked.
Oldies collectively held back and so held us all back. They largely rejected a vaccine that the young cannot wait to receive. They baulked at risks that the young, who have far more to lose, have accepted.
Old people should be grateful. They should reassess their smug assumptions. For young people are fighting for a future that the oldies have been too unthoughtful, unwise and ungrateful to embrace.
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