Public wrongly think average age of Covid death is 65, poll reveals
The public mistakenly think the average age of Covid deaths is 65 and that the virus is the UK's biggest killer, a poll has found.
Laying bare the misconceptions around the threat from the pandemic, the Savanta ComRes survey, for Conservative Woman, also reveals that the majority of people – 52 per cent – believe "long" Covid affects one in three when in fact it is around one in 20.
The median age at which people think coronavirus victims have died is just 65 when the real average is 82.4 years. Average life expectancy is 81.1 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The poll found that 41 per cent think the virus has been the single biggest cause of UK deaths in 2020, when ONS data shows that, for September, it was the 19th cause in England and the 24th in Wales.
Only around six in 10 people (59 per cent) say they will accept a Covid vaccine, leaving more than 21 million Britons who would not (17 per cent) or are neutral/don't know (24 per cent).
Six in 10 – 61 per cent – agree that the UK will need repeated lockdowns until a vaccine is widely available, even though half of adults do not wish to see England's second national lockdown extended beyond December 2.
Forty-two per cent say coronavirus pressures on the NHS have stopped them accessing non-Covid healthcare, equating to 22 million adults. Forty per cent say their mental health has suffered as a result of the restrictions.
Savanta ComRes interviewed 2,130 UK adults aged over 18 online between November 6 and 9, 2020.
