Experts emphasize the need for younger Americans to get vaccinated

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Tue, 2021-05-25 19:17 — mike kraft

Young Americans are lagging behind with Covid-19 vaccines. And these threats have experts pushing for their vaccination Experts are turning their focus in the fight against Covid-19 to vaccinating young Americans -- warning that even though they don't face a high chance of serious illness, they still risk long-term symptoms if they get coronavirus. Madeline Holcombe and Ray Sanchez, CNN CNN

(CNN) Experts are turning their focus in the fight against Covid-19 to vaccinating young Americans -- warning that even though they don't face a high chance of serious illness, they still risk long-term symptoms if they get coronavirus.

The United States has so far made significant progress in vaccinating adults and a new milestone was achieved Tuesday.

Half of the adult population in the US is fully vaccinated, according to data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...

But many experts have identified young Americans as a critical age group for inoculation success -- the key to getting the pandemic under control in the country.

People 24 and younger are getting vaccine doses at much lower rates. Among those 12 to 15, only 1.4% have received at least one dose, while 1.7% of 16- to 17-year-olds have and 7.6% of 18- to 24-year-olds have, according to data from the CDC.

To reach the threshold of protection needed to limit the virus' spread, at least 70% to 85% of the US population will need to be immunized through vaccines or infection, health experts say.

Not only could vaccinating children, teens and young adults help reach that percentage, but leaving them unvaccinated could give the virus a chance to spread, mutate and develop a strain resistant to existing vaccines.

While vaccinated people seem to be protected against current strains, "there may be future variants for which we are not so lucky," said Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. ...

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