'I didn’t know it existed.' Why young people are the least vaccinated in Seattle area

Gillian Wolfe, a student at the University of Washington, didn’t get the last Covid booster. “I didn't know that it existed, frankly,” she said.

Wolfe isn’t alone. A total of 71% of King County residents never got one. And young people are the least likely to get the vaccine. Only 18% of people ages 18 to 34 got last year’s shot.

Not that Wolfe is opposed to it. Standing on University Way (The Ave) in northeast Seattle, Wolfe and her friend Evie Pearce said life got in the way.

“I just think I was really busy and probably just didn't care as much as I should have,” Pearce said.

Wolfe added, “It's kind of just a group mentality. No one's getting around to doing it. I feel like, if one of my friends was like, ‘Oh, I'm gonna go get vaccinated,’ I would just come along with.”

As the words left her mouth, Wolfe and Pearce had an epiphany. “Girls’ trip!” they said. “We’ll make a day of it. We could get coffee, get, like, a little sticker or something.”

Wolfe said that back home, she went regularly to a clinic, so she would have heard about the updated vaccines. But she hasn’t found a doctor here in Seattle.

“It's more difficult when you're moving around a lot,” she said. “Being transient makes it difficult.”

Alise Sheppard, 25, got the initial two Covid shots back in 2021, when it was required for her job, but she hasn’t gotten boosters since.

“I just didn't think that I would need to get it again and again and again,” she said. “I had no use for it. I haven’t gotten Covid, so…”

Sheppard said she doesn’t have health insurance, and doesn’t have a doctor she sees regularly.

“It costs money I don't have,” she said.

Covid shots are no longer covered by the federal government and can be costly for people without health insurance. The shot could cost an uninsured person $201.

King County’s public health agency is not doing any specific outreach to young people, but they are trying to get free shots to people without health insurance.

An agency spokesperson said by email that federal funding for Covid vaccine clinics has diminished, so they’re focusing on the South King County communities hit hardest by the disease with the limited money they do have.

Some young people who have kept up with the shots have said they feel like outliers among their peers.

“A lot of my friends are very immunocompromised, and so keeping everybody safe is kind of like a mutual effort,” H Swearingen, 27, said.

“We're in a pretty niche community, and I don't realize that until we leave: No one's masking, no one's up to date on vaccines,” said Maya, 25, who was with H on The Ave.

A state mobile vaccine clinic is coming to the UW campus for four hours in mid-October. The vaccines will be free.