United but divided

Policy responses and people’s perceptions in the EU during the Covid-19 outbreak

Bibliographic Data

ID21468109
AuthorsIryna Sabat (0000-0001-9211-4168, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, corresponding author), Sebastian Neumann‐Böhme (0000-0001-8336-3736, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Nirosha Elsem Varghese (0000-0001-7393-7572, Bocconi University), Pedro P Barros (0000-0002-0881-4928, Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Werner Brouwer (0000-0002-0476-8397, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Job Van Exel (0000-0002-4178-1777, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Jonas Schreyögg (0000-0001-8030-2161, Universität Hamburg), Tom Stargardt (0000-0003-3954-0955, Universität Hamburg)
Year2020
Volume124
Issue9
Pages909-918
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0168-8510 • E-ISSN: 1872-6054
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.06.009
PMID32631613
OpenAlexW3035844284
LanguageEN
Citations received59
References cited4

To understand the public sentiment toward the measures used by policymakers for COVID-19 containment, a survey among representative samples of the population in seven European countries was carried out in the first two weeks of April 2020. The study addressed people's support for containment policies, worries about COVID-19 consequences, and trust in sources of information. Citizens were overall satisfied with their government's response to the pandemic; however, the extent of approval differed across countries and policy measures. A north-south divide in public opinion was noticeable across the European states. It was particularly pronounced for intrusive policy measures, such as mobile data use for movement tracking, economic concerns, and trust in the information from the national government. Considerable differences in people's attitudes were noticed within countries, especially across individual regions and age groups. The findings suggest that the epidemic acts as a stressor, causing health and economic anxieties even in households that were not directly affected by the virus. At the same time, the burden of stress was unequally distributed across regions and age groups. Based on the data collected, we draw lessons from the containment stage and identify several insights that can facilitate the design of lockdown exit strategies and future containment policies so that a high level of compliance can be expected

Business · Demographic economics · Development economics · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Pandemic · Perception · Political science · Politics · Population · Public health · Public opinion · Public policy · Stressor · COVID-19 and Mental Health · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Medicine · Psychology