Whether it’s high school students rallying boldly against gun violence or a teenager serving as the global face of climate action, events of the past few years have shown us that young people are willing and able to address the biggest challenges of our time.
As the world grapples with a global pandemic of unprecedented proportions, we have yet to call on the power of the younger generation.
Instead, newsfeeds have been littered with stories of millennials and Gen Zers ignoring public health recommendations, suggesting that these generations are ignorant and selfish. Many social media users have circulated the same meme that reads: “Your grandparents were called to war. You’re being asked to sit on the couch. You can do this.” While arguably well intentioned, this statement plays on stereotypes that the young continue to endure.
While the data demonstrates that older age cohorts have the highest rates of fatalities from COVID-19, more recent reports are clear—young adults do not get a free pass and some may be as severely affected.
Regardless of their risk of succumbing to the disease, early data does show that the young play an important role in the natural history of COVID-19. Evidence from South Korea shows that asymptomatic young people may be involved in disease spread at a higher proportion than older individuals. Often asymptomatic, young carriers of the virus contribute to rapid spread by unknowingly transmitting it to others who are more vulnerable.
However, the potential impact of the young on the course of this pandemic goes far beyond epidemiology: they play a pivotal role in Canada’s fight against COVID-19 and their energy can be harnessed in three key ways.
First, early stories of COVID-19 spread quickly thanks to social media and young people are well equipped to identify and share trusted news content with their communities. They can help break down technological barriers that many Canadians may face when physically distancing. Often criticized for connecting through social media rather than in person, young people can take this time to teach older generations to stay connected. Whether through sharing an informative Twitter thread from a physician or a helpful Facebook post from a local business, showing a parent how to FaceTime, or showing a grandparent how to stream a press conference or religious event, young adults can help their families use technology to build community and maintain a connection to the outside world. Viral social media challenges and TikTok videos, sometimes dismissed as silly, can now provide genuine entertainment and feelings of connectedness and even spread core public health messages in a memorable way.
Second, in many cases, families and households will now depend on younger family members to assist with important tasks of everyday living—from purchasing groceries and essential supplies to running errands. Public health officials have recommended that one person per household be designated for these roles. Given their lower risk of disease severity and the higher likelihood of being able to more swiftly navigate public spaces while keeping a 2-metre distance, young people are often best suited to take on this role. Medical students across the country have taken on this role, dubbing themselves “caremongers,” providing childcare and grocery services to frontline health workers.
Finally, when it comes to providing the skills and workforce to combat this public health crisis, there are many stories of young people stepping up to the plate through innovative ideas and out-of-the box thinking to help assist in the pandemic response. For instance, McGill University engineering students helped create 3D-printed personal protective equipment; students at the University of Toronto developed an online tool to map the local spread of COVID-19; in Alberta, scores of medical students are assisting public health organizations with contact tracing.
Ultimately, the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic may very well be determined by the choices young people make today more than any other age cohort. As opposed to painting all young people as lazy and ignorant, it’s time we leverage their unique experiences and abilities to help the world move through this pandemic quickly. The young have the power to make physical distancing work and even make it work well. This is the generation of Greta and Malala. Their brand is fearless leadership—not selfishness. If there was ever a time that the world needed them, it is right now. And they could not be more ready for the challenge.
The comments section is closed.
Hi po!!! Ahmmmm….. can I use this for my project cause, I need this po for my essay. THANK YOU AND GODBLESSS
Heyy po!!!, Ahmmmm….. can I use this for my project cause, I need this po for my essay. THANK YOU AND GODBLESSS
Correct answer, thank you so much
Correct answer, thank you so much
Vaping during Covid 19 pandemic-Why young people need to take immediate actions to save their peers from devastating tobacco addiction
We wholeheartedly endorse the Drs. Mackley and Annans’ timely statement: “Youth have an important role to play in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic”
Even though, tobacco industry promotes e-cigarette as tools for quitting combustible tobacco, using youth friendly social media aggressively, the evidence does not support their use as part of population-based cessation strategies (1). The position paper of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh highlighted that the physicians and the health care community need to be cautious about the effects of vaping on the young brain and the potential for addicting a new generation (2).
Meanwhile, adolescents are overwhelmingly exposed to social media messages that favor e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids. Misinformation could danger adolescents overall health and wellbeing. This underlines the need for effective public health engagement with social media and adolescents, youth and the young leaders can support policies targeting adolescent e-cigarette use and the dissemination of evidence-based information using the social media (3, 4, 5).
Tobacco smoking is a known risk factor for many respiratory infections and increases the severity of respiratory diseases (6, 7). A review of studies by public health experts convened by WHO on 29 April 2020 found that smokers are more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19, compared to non-smokers (8,9).
Over 4,148,000 people worldwide were known to be infected by the novel corona virus, and the number of deaths had exceeded 284,000. Like the previous viral outbreaks MERS, SARS, COVID-19 attacks the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system.
There is substantial evidence that smoking or vaping increases people’s vulnerability to severe illness once infected and anything that makes the lungs less healthy will weaken our survival chances against COVID-19. It is utmost important that middle of fight against the Covid 19 pandemic, we need to disseminate this information widely as possible in order to effectively prevent and control COVID-19 (10, 11, 12).
COVID-19 is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. Smoking impairs lung function making it harder for the body to fight off corona viruses and other diseases. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes which put people with these conditions at higher risk for developing severe illness when affected by COVID-19. Available research suggests that smokers are at higher risk of developing severe disease and death (8, 9, 10, 11, 12).
In the light of these accumulating evidence, COVID-19 and tobacco use is a critical public health concern and adolescents and young community can get involved and promote comprehensive tobacco prevention programs and social media campaigns. We strongly believe that it is utmost important to seize this opportunity to address adolescents e- cigarette epidemic in Canada and world-wide. We could leverage and tap the school student leaders and train them as peer counselors to redouble our school prevention work. Capacity building in this endeavor is vital and the schools must be supported with sufficient tools and the resources to deal with this epidemic realistically.
REFERENCES:
(1). Ghebreyesus TA. Progress in beating the tobacco epidemic. Lancet. 2019; pii: S0140-6736(19)31730-1. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31730-1.
(2). Mathur A, Dempsey OJ. Electronic cigarettes: a brief update. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2018;48(4):346-351.
(3). Bandara AN, Mehrnoush V. Electronic cigarettes: adolescent health and wellbeing Lancet. 2018;392(10146):473. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31177-2
(4). Bandara AN. The consultation of youth in the public health care policy-making process. Can J Public Health. 2016;107(2):e216. Published 2016 Aug 15. doi:10.17269/cjph.107.5446
(5). Bandara AN. Collaborative opportunities for adolescents and young adults in the public health care decision-making process. Can J Public Health. 2015;106(6):e458. Published 2015 Oct 8. doi:10.17269/cjph.106.5167
(6). Gotts JE, Jordt SE, McConnell R, Tarran R. What are the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes? [published correction appears in BMJ. 2019 Oct 15;367:l5980]. BMJ. 2019;366:l5275. Published 2019 Sep 30. doi:10.1136/bmj.l5275
(7). Stanbrook MB, Drazen JM. Vaping-Induced Lung Disease – A Look Forward by Looking Back. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(17):1649‐1650. doi:10.1056/NEJMe2004876
(8). WHO statement: Tobacco use and COVID-19- https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/11-05-2020-who-statement-tobacco-use-and-covid-19
(9). WHO-Smoking does not protect against coronavirus: WHO official -http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/09/c_139044018.htm
(10). WHO-Tobacco and water pipe use increases the risk of suffering from COVID-19- http://www.emro.who.int/tfi/know-the-truth/tobacco-and-waterpipe-users-are-at-increased-risk-of-covid-19-infection.html
(11). Zhao Q, Meng M, Kumar R, et al. The impact of COPD and smoking history on the severity of Covid-19: A systemic review and meta-analysis [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 15]. J Med Virol. 2020;10.1002/jmv.25889. doi:10.1002/jmv.25889
(12). Emami A, Javanmardi F, Pirbonyeh N, Akbari A. Prevalence of underlying diseases in hospitalized patients with COVID-19:a systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2020 Mar 24;8(1):e35. eCollection 2020
Authors-
Aki Nilanga Bandara*
Founding Chair-Global coalition to empower adolescent and youth on harmful therapeutic interventions to prevent combustible tobacco use.
Instructor, Faculty of Land and Food System, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada.
*Author for correspondence: email: nilangabandara527@gmail.com Phone: 778 823 3545
Ricky Jhauj
Coordinator-Global coalition to empower adolescent and youth on harmful therapeutic interventions to prevent combustible tobacco use.
Dr. Vahid Mehrnoush
Senior Advisor-Global coalition to empower adolescent and youth on harmful therapeutic interventions to prevent combustible tobacco use.
Section of Trauma, Acute Care, and Global Surgery, Vancouver General Hospital, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses published yesterday in the Journal PLOS ONE confirm that the current smokers are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than non-smokers. Further the study results showed that 22% (31/139) of current smokers and 46% (13/28) of ex-smokers had severe complications. The calculated RR showed that current smokers were 1.45 times more likely [95% CI: 1.03–2.04] to have severe complications compared to former and never smokers. Current smokers also had a higher mortality rate of 38.5%.-
Free full text of this article is available from the appended URL-https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233147
Well said Michael, there is also youth abundance behind the cash registers and the stocking of shelves so everyone can continue to buy essentials.
Perhaps now that migrant workers cannot be brought in to plant / harvest and work the food product facilities, those receiving the $2 grand a month can step into these roles for extra income, learning experience, and production of the necessities.