"Misinformation" is creating a "real dilemma" for young people over whether they should get the Covid-19 vaccine, Northern Ireland's mental health champion, Professor Siobhán O'Neill, has said.
She said this had led young people to ask "if the vaccine is safe".
There shouldn't be that level of "uncertainty," she added.
She said that trust should be placed in "the experts and scientists who are making the decisions."
"We need to look to the scientific consensus and public health leaders, doctors and leading organizations. That's where we need to focus our information," she said.
O'Neill on Sunday with Steven Rainey's program on BBC Radio Ulster said that there is a "distrust" of authority.
"Because we have so much misinformation out there, there may be young people who will see this as a real dilemma about whether the vaccine is safe, which to me is a big problem because there shouldn't be that level of uncertainty," O'Neill added.
Professor O'Neill said the aim of vaccinating young people was to "reduce their risk of getting infected and reduce their risk of spreading it to others and reduce the free time they will have to spend outside of school".
"If we go to the hospital, we usually accept whatever the doctors and nurses say. Whatever drugs we need too. However, the mistrust is there. Mistrust of authority, mistrust of our health workers," she added.
O'Neill ultimately announced that adults who have not received two doses of the vaccine are five times more likely to be hospitalized and ten times more likely to be admitted to intensive care.
(Full article at BBC)