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New global research reveals that citizens of more than 25 participating countries believe governments and leaders have reacted incorrectly or belatedly to the coronavirus.
The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, co-designed by The Guardian with a sample of 26,000 people from 25 countries, took place during July and August, before the start of the second pandemic wave in most countries. The findings show huge differences in the opinions of citizens about the management of the pandemic, which has cost more than 1.15 million lives, by their governments, depending on their country of origin.
Winners”
The record is held by Denmark, with four in five citizens believing their government has done a good or fairly good job in fighting the coronavirus. The country was locked in early March, reducing the death toll from the pandemic to 119 per million.
Australia and Greece, with only 35 and 51 deaths per million, respectively, are also characterized by record taxation levels above 70%. The corresponding rate in Germany, which had a similar mortality rate to Denmark, is capped at 67%.
Or the losers
At the other end of the scale, only 34% of Americans, 36% of Spanish, 37% of French, and 39% of British and Brazilians believe their governments have done well. Mortality in these countries is at the highest levels in the world: 686 per million in the United States, 735 in Spain, 521 in France, 649 in Great Britain and 730 in Brazil.
Surprising findings
But there are also important anomalies. Fifty-eight percent of respondents in Italy and 54 percent in Sweden, two countries that also suffered the highest death rates (676 and 586 per million respectively), said their governments had more or less managed the pandemic. all right.
Analysts believe that the case of Italy can be explained to some extent by the remarkable popularity of Giuseppe Conte, who, according to opinion polls, is the first Italian politician to gain such a large share of public trust in years. 61% of the participants approved of Conte’s position during the pandemic.
In Sweden, an independent YouGov poll found that 65% of citizens have a positive image of the leading epidemiologist, Anders Tegnel. Tegnel was the architect of the country’s rather lax strategy that did not include the blockade. In addition, 69% stated that they had a lot or little trust in the national health service.
The special case of Japan
Most surprisingly, the lowest levels of applause are in Japan, which has one of the lowest death rates in the world (only 13 deaths per million people). Only 21% of Japanese said they believed their government had handled the crisis well or very well.
Observers believe this may be the result of disapproval of the government’s initial reactions, such as its reluctance to mobilize for the cancellation of the Olympics, when their celebration still seemed possible. At the same time, many people believe that Japan’s success in curbing the spread of the disease and increasing the death toll is actually due more to the rationality and compliance of ordinary people than to government recommendations.
The Japanese government’s record of disapproval in no way reflects the so-called “prevention paradox”: if a health strategy works, people tend to think it was not necessary from the start.
Greeks find spring restrictions excessive
Despite blockades imposed by many countries in the spring, only participants from South Africa and Greece believe in percentages above 50% that their freedoms were more restricted than necessary, and nowhere did the majority perception that governments placing too much emphasis on reducing the pandemic rather than focusing on getting back to normal.
Most respondents believe that the Chinese government has been slow to respond, while citizens of 16 of the 25 countries, including Spain, Great Britain, France, Brazil, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Australia, the United States and Japan believe that the The spread of the virus in their countries could have been prevented if their own government had reacted differently.
Participants are in favor of masks
The survey found that, in general, there is strong support for the use of masks indoors, such as in stores, airports, MMM and medical facilities, despite the fact that the measure has had strong reactions as it has been adopted by the states.
But skepticism, sometimes in large quantities, survives, even though research shows that three-layer cloth masks can filter about 60% of the droplets that can carry the virus, while surgical masks more than 85 %.
Swedes and Danes distrust masks
Participants from Sweden, where the National Health Service does not recommend wearing a mask (“We prefer half-empty buses, rather than buses full of masks,” Tegnel said) and Denmark, where masks are only recommended in certain circumstances, were more skeptical of its importance.
40% of Swedes believe that masks are not at all or not very effective in stores, while the corresponding figure for Danes was 27%. Only 35% of Swedes and 45% of Danes believe that masks should be mandatory in stores, compared to huge fees in other parts of the world (90% in Brazil and Spain, 87% in Italy, 86 % in France and 76% in Great Britain).
Using a mask outdoors
More than 65% of Swedes and 62% of Danes, as well as 63% of Germans and 55% of British participants said that wearing a mask on the road would not be effective in curbing the coronavirus, while than the opposite opinion only that it gathered a double digit number of supporters in the same countries.
In contrast, participants from countries hardest hit by the first wave of the pandemic, where the use of masks has become mandatory on many different occasions, are more likely to state that wearing masks in public could be more or less effective.
In Spain, Brazil, Italy and Mexico, the vast majority of participants said that masks could limit the spread of the virus in any closed public space. 65% of Spaniards believe that masks should be mandatory on the street, a rule that has since been applied to all open and closed public spaces in the country.
Source: www.theguardian.com
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