The Guthrie County Public Health Department is encouraging those who may be hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

Public Health Director Jotham Arber says there may be a section of the population who may be hesitant to get a vaccine, such as the younger population, because they feel they may not get as sick as others. However, Arber says there is still an important reason for those individuals to get vaccinated.

“Even though it seems like younger folk don’t get as sick with COVID-19, and it seems like you might not need that shot because everybody else is getting it. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. Because what’s going to happen is if we don’t vaccinate that group and people continue to be hesitant, eventually they’ll either get the vaccine or they will get COVID-19.”

Arber tells Raccoon Valley Radio this could become an issue because if the virus would be left to circulate among the younger population that would allow it to find variants that could potentially make younger people more sick.

“The worst thing about that is we have several vaccines that are very effective and we can get this thing to stop. We can get it to go to a point that we don’t see anymore variants.”

Arber says it’s important to get vaccinated even if you feel like you wouldn’t get very sick if you were to contract the virus.