Younger people failing to heed advice on how to stop the spread

Poll reveals generation gap in attitude to the disease, response to pleas to stay at home and washing hands

ALMOST one in four 25 to 34-year-olds are failing to follow the Government’s most basic advice on slowing the spread of Covid-19, according to a poll.

A survey of 2,000 people in Britain exposed a significant divide in the approach of different generations to the pandemic. Only 76 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 said they were washing their hands more frequently, in line with official advice, compared with 90 per cent of over 55s. The 25-34 age bracket also contained the highest proportion of any age group (7 per cent) saying they had yet to take any additional precautions.

The findings come after Boris Johnson ordered the closure of all pubs, bars, gyms and nightclubs due to fears that both younger and older people were unwittingly spreading the virus while socialising. A second survey by Imperial College London’s Patient Experience Research Centre revealed half of us (48 per cent) believe we will get infected at some point.

Of those surveyed in the ORB poll, 72 per cent said they would be willing to sacrifice some of their human rights if doing so helped to prevent the spread of the disease – a proportion that was almost 10 per cent lower than the average in 10 countries polled.

The ORB poll in the UK found that only 71 per cent of adults are staying in their homes or taking part in less social interaction – a key element of the Government’s strategy to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Among those aged between 45 and 54, only 60 per cent said they were carrying out less social interaction or remaining in their homes. For those aged 65 or over the figure rose to 84 per cent. A further generational divide was highlighted by a finding that almost one in four 18 to 24-year-olds (24 per cent) and one in five 25 to 34-year-olds (19 per cent) believe the coronavirus threat has been “exaggerated”, compared to just 13 per cent of over 65s.

Overall, 86 per cent of British respondents said they were washing their hands more frequently, with 18 to 24-year-olds slightly above average at 87 per cent. However the figure dropped to 76 per cent among those aged between 25 and 34.

In Italy, one of the worst affected countries, 87 per cent of respondents to a separate online poll of 1,000 people said they were washing their hands more frequently, compared with 85 per cent in France and 79 per cent in the Netherlands, based on identical surveys. In Pakistan, which reported a sharp rise in infections last week, only 43 per cent said they were washing their hands more frequently. Turkey’s figure was 42 per cent.

The proportions of adults staying at home or taking part in less social interaction were significantly higher in Italy and France, at 93 per cent and 84 per cent respectively.

However both countries imposed more draconian restrictions on the movements of their citizens than in the UK, where only 71 per cent said they had been staying at home or socialising less when the poll was carried out between Wednesday and Friday. Of six possible precautions against the virus, British women were more likely to be carrying them out than men. Some 89 per cent of women said they were washing their hands more frequently, compared with 83 per cent of men.