As public officials race to find ways to entice young adults to get vaccinated, interviews across the country suggest that no single fix, no easy solution, is likely to sway these holdouts. Some are staunchly opposed. Others are merely disinterested. And still others are persuadably skeptical. But pretty much everyone who was eager for a vaccine already has one, and public health officials now face an overlapping mix of inertia, fear, busy schedules and misinformation as they try — sometimes one person at a time — to cajole Gen Z into getting a shot.
“If you’re busy, if you are challenged with everything else in daily living and you’re not sure you want to get vaccinated, then you hang on to one little thing that may not be true at all that gives you an excuse,” said Dr. Rex Archer, the health director in Kansas City, Mo., as he surveyed a storefront vaccination site where only one person, a 38-year-old man, came in for a shot during a 30-minute stretch on Wednesday morning...
In a federal report released last week, just over one-third of adults ages 18 to 39 reported being vaccinated, with especially low rates among those who are Black; among people 24 or younger; and among those who had lower incomes, less education and no health insurance.
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