A READER gets in touch to share their fears for young people who are refusing to take up the Covid vaccine.

I MET my nephew for the first time in many months over the weekend.

He is an NHS respiratory consultant working across hospitals in the north. What he told me gave a very salutary ‘first hand’ message.

He said some very few unlucky healthy people are ending up on general wards with Covid after being vaccinated, usually needing a modest amount of oxygen for a few days before discharge.

However, he said the story is very different in his intensive care units where in the past week the patients were made up of a few vulnerable people with severe underlying conditions and a vast majority of fit, healthy younger people unvaccinated by choice.

He agreed that vaccination can be unpleasant and could cause side effects. They hurt. You may be able to still catch Covid. He admitted to feeling awful himself after having his vaccinations. Many of his colleagues have felt the same but none have been hospitalised with Covid afterwards or had severe side effects.

He said that his message came down to this. He could not think of a single case of a previously fit and healthy person who has ended up in intensive care after being fully vaccinated. “A vaccine may not stop you from catching Covid,” he said, “but it can save your life when you do.”

That needs to be put on billboards everywhere!

Name and address supplied.

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