Data from the Department of Health reveals this age category makes up almost a quarter of Australia's COVID-19 cases.
Peter Collignon, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Australian National University, says the challenge is that while they're more likely to be infected, they're less likely to get very sick, leading to complacency.
"That differential in death (rates) and also your chance of going to hospital probably also affects your view that 'I'm indestructible and this won't affect me'. Now it is a problem, because even if your risk of death is less than one in 1000, if 100,000 people get infected, that's still 100 deaths that would be otherwise avoidable. But I think it's all those factors, the fact that they are the most affected often socially and economically but the least affected medically, means that they may be less likely to comply with the basic things we need to do."
A YouthInsight survey of over 500 people aged between 14 and 25 found many are washing their hands less regularly and failing to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze.
Dr Moy says the virus is a multi-system disease, meaning it affects the entire body and could have unknown long-term effects.
"There's probably other things that it's doing to the rest of the body that we do not totally understand, which is for me the really scary part. Because it's unclear whether if you catch it when you're young, you get a mild illness and have problems later in life which is going to be a result of COVID-19 infection."
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