‘Older people ignoring the rules’

THE behaviour of older people ignoring social distancing rules has been ‘problematic’, Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething has admitted.

Mr Gething was addressing the Health, Social Services and Sport Committee in the Senedd.

He said there was a “breakdown in behaviour” in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) leading to the area’s local lockdown.

The minister said that it was not just young adults who stopped obeying the rules but also “plenty of older adults” who “saw nothing wrong in what they were doing”.

Mr Gething said: “What we found was the breakdown in behaviour about social distancing and indoor contact had got to a stage where it took quite a lot to recover it and rediscover that collective discipline.

“Even with that breakdown, the majority of people were still following the rules and were doing the right thing, but it does come back to this thing of how a minority of behavior can cause a really big problem.

“It is also, as we have seen, that disease transmission does not just stay within young adults.

“It is also worth noting that the sort of behavior that we are talking about is not just confined to people in their 20s.

“There have been plenty of older adults who have engaged in behaviour that has been problematic and likely to lead to coronavirus transmission taking place at a larger level.”

The Minister claimed that “we are seeing signs of a plateau in RCT” and that “it is still at a high rate but the next weeks data will tell us if we have turned a corner”.

On the challenge of compliance, he added that “people were being very upfront about the fact they saw nothing wrong in what they were doing”.

Mr Gething said it was “an example of the risk taking behavior we need to see rowed back” but there had been “strong leadership and clear messaging in RCT”.

According to Mr Gething, efforts to get people to follow the rules have been hampered by conspiracy theories on social media.

“There is more scepticism now,” he said.

“Unfortunately, for all the benefits social media can bring, it is also a platform for conspiracy theories to take hold.”

Mr Gething pointed to a “councillor in Blaenau Gwent” sharing an “utterly absurd conspiracy theory” as well as other figures in the public eye.

He said: “It makes it really difficult when sources of misinformation are being shared by what appear to be, for a number of people, reliable sources.

“That is really challenging.”