So many young people in Australia are testing positive to Covid that videos about their experiences are going viral on TikTok.
One popular trend involves users posting videos of their positive rapid antigen test, or some other situation showing they have Covid, with the voiceover: “Yep that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.” That is then cut with a video of them doing legal but high-risk activities – such as dancing at a music festival – to the sound of Boney M’s Rasputin.
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Other videos show users struggling to get their hand on a rapid antigen test or waiting in long queues at Covid testing centres.
“Gorgeous gorgeous girls Afterpay their rapid antigen test,” writes TikTok user @eilishgilligan, in a statement that attempts to capture the mood of young people living in Australia’s major cities.
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According to New South Wales department of health statistics, 38,407 people between the ages of 20 and 29 tested positive for Covid-19 in the past seven days – 28% of the total cases.
In Victoria, there were 18,467 active cases in the same cohort – 38% of the total. Victoria’s Covid logistics chief, Jeroen Weimar, admitted on Tuesday the state’s actual figures were likely higher but he said about 30-40% of cases being picked up were in people aged 20 to 40.
As rapid antigen tests become increasingly hard to come by and PCR testing queues report hours-long waiting times, the Monash University infectious disease modeller Dr Michael Lydeamore said it was unlikely government statistics were capturing the magnitude of the outbreak.
“We are just not getting an accurate picture of what’s happening,” he said.
Lydeamore said part of the problem was that there was no way to capture the results of rapid antigen tests.
“In the UK, for example, there is a barcode on every test, and a QR code,” he said.
“You can scan that with your phone and put in your information and record your test result and then the health agency can access that for reporting.
“We don’t have that system here and so there are all these people testing positive with RATs, doing the right thing and staying home, but we have no way to know about them.”
Although countless TikTok users claim they picked up the virus while celebrating New Year’s Eve, Lydeamore said several factors contributed to the high positive rates among people in their 20s.
That cohort were traditionally key transmitters during outbreaks of infectious disease, he said. Not only because of their social contacts but because they also tended to work in high-risk settings such as retail, hospitality and busy offices.
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Lydeamore said the timeline of the vaccine rollout also contributed to the high case numbers.
“A lot of people in that age category are pretty far from their primary dose and not yet eligible for a booster. And that’s going to put them more at risk potentially of acquiring the virus.”
‘You have to laugh or you’ll cry’
Some young people on social media have said – most likely in jest – they were lucky to have tested positive before the recent outbreak so they could move on with their lives.
“Smashing out c0v1d early so I can have an uninterrupted hot v@x summer,” says one user, 28-year-old Georgia Milhe (@brokebutmakeitboujee), who tested positive for Covid in November.
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She said joking about the situation was a cathartic release and, despite her comment, she remained concerned she would be impacted by the current Omicron outbreak.
She was doing her best to avoid exposure, reporting a similar attitude among her circle of friends.
“You have to laugh or you’ll cry,” Milhe said.
“I don’t think people are taking it lightly, I just think they’re trying to cope. This situation – to think that it’s going to still be going on and getting worse than it was after all the lockdowns – it’s pretty crap.”
‘You just have to try and protect yourself’
Other users have joked about trying to get the virus now so they can isolate with their housemates and partners. But Lydeamore warned against this strategy.
“Even though younger people have a much lower chance of getting a severe disease, it’s certainly not zero,” he said. “There’s plenty of people under 30 in hospital and in intensive care. And every time you get Covid, that is something that could happen to you.”
He also pointed to reports from South Africa of people suffering “distinct infections as little as a month apart”.
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While he acknowledged the challenges of young people – especially those who live in shared housing – he said it was important everyone tried to avoid exposure.
“It’s not inevitable that everyone will get Covid,” he said.
“It’s inevitable that a lot of people will get Covid, but we don’t know who those people are. You just have to try and protect yourself as best as you can, the closer quarters [make it] harder, but you just have to do your best.”
