Unite rep Kate Alderson, 29, like many of us, has a phobia of spiders. So when she glimpsed a spider in her bed one evening, she started screaming. Alarmed, her partner asked her what was wrong.

“Can’t you see that spider?” she told him. But nothing was there – she was hallucinating.

It wasn’t until after a Long Covid course she took recently that she learned this is one of the many terrifying symptoms of Long Covid, which Kate has suffered from for more than six months now.

When she first caught Covid in December during the second wave of the pandemic, Kate thought as a young, fit and healthy person, she would be fine. Then on furlough, she eventually returned to work in January after she had fully recovered from the virus – or so she thought.

“I was on my first shift and towards the end I started coughing and feeling really tired,” she explained. “I didn’t think much of it at first. I thought it’s normal to feel tired after my first full shift in a long time since my job is quite labour intensive.”

But then when she got home, it hit her like a ton of bricks.

“I looked in the mirror and I was white as a sheet. I lay down and was then essentially bed-bound. I could hardly stand – when I did I felt faint. I started having really bad migraines. My hair started falling out. I couldn’t even do the dishes.”

Wanting to get the bottom of it, she phoned the GP who asked to see her. By this point, she was so weak she couldn’t drive herself to the doctor so her parents had to take her. Numerous tests revealed Kate had serious calcium and vitamin deficiencies – another sign of Long Covid.

“I’ve had to take various tablets for months. In addition to the migraines, I’ve also developed acid reflux. I was initially sleeping 18 hours a day and then I swung to the other extreme where I couldn’t sleep at all because of the anxiety. I lay awake all night just thinking am I ever going to get any better?

“I’m the type of person who used to love to go out and socialise all the time,” Kat explained. “I even had a season ticket for the football. But the way I’ve been feeling it’s really put me off from going out. I wouldn’t wish this virus on my worst enemy.”

Kate was infected with Covid before vaccines were available, but as soon as it was her turn to get the jab, she jumped at the chance.

“I couldn’t wait to have the jab,” she said. “The woman who gave me the jab told me, ‘You might feel ill for a couple days’ and I told her, ‘That’s fine with me - just give me the jab!’”

Ardent advocate

Since her continuing ordeal with Long Covid, Kate, who is also on Unite’s young people’s and women’s *committees, has become an ardent advocate of the vaccine. She especially encourages uptake among young people, many of whom, studies have shown, are reluctant to get the jab.

Although figures in August show that vaccine hesitancy is declining among people under 30, this age cohort remains the group least likely to get the jab. Overall, vaccine hesitancy among the entire adult population stands at 4 per cent, while in the under 30 age group, this figure stood at 7 to 10 per cent.

The most recent ONS data shows hesitancy among young people has begun to fall closer in line with the general adult population, but there still remain millions of eligible young people who are unvaccinated and unsure whether they will get the jab.

What’s more, young people are the most likely to have tested positive for Covid currently, with the latest data showing that Covid case rates in England were still among the highest in 20-to 29 year-olds.

In the summer, hospitalisations among young people steadily rose – in August, one in five people admitted to hospital with Covid in England were aged between 18 and 34. In comparison, during the last wave of the virus before vaccines were available, only 5 per cent of those hospitalised in England were young adults.

Unite rep Nick West, 27, who is also chair of the union’s London and Eastern young people’s committee, recently caught Covid himself, but because he had had his first jab, he says his illness wasn’t as severe.

“Unfortunately, the person who I caught Covid from ended up in hospital – he was completely unvaccinated,” Nick told uniteExtra. “But my partner who was fully vaccinated and who was forced to self-isolate with me didn’t catch Covid at all.”

Nick’s experience reflects several research studies that show that while being fully vaccinated doesn’t always protect against simple infection, it does make catching Covid much less likely, and all but eliminates the risk of serious illness and hospitalisation. And even one jab can have a degree of protective effect, with two jabs offering people the greatest level of protection against Covid-19 and its variants.

Both Nick and Kate believe young people may be hesitant because they may feel that they’ll be okay if they do catch the virus.

‘Unpredictable’

“They think because they’re so young it’s not going to affect them,” Kate noted. “I used to play football and netball constantly, almost every day. I was really fit. I didn’t expect it would hit me this hard. You just don’t know how it’s going to affect you so why take that risk? Covid is so unpredictable.”

Nick and Kate agree that having conversations with friends and family are vital in the collective effort to increase uptake of the jab and ensure we’re all safe.

“I think it’s so important to just have that mutual respect when we have those talks with friends and family – but at the same time don’t be afraid to challenge people’s views,” Nick explained.

“The people I’ve spoken to who are anti-vaccine are quite passionate about that stance so I think it’s important to understand where they’re coming from and not talk down to them. But we’ve also got to challenge the misinformation that’s out there.”

Nick recounted how he had a conversation with a friend who said he was going to wait to get the jab.

“I asked him what his fears were and we explored them together instead of me dismissing his fears out of hand. I’m not sure if that conversation alone made the difference but I know that he didn’t end up waiting and got the jab when his time came.”