IN DETAIL: COVID-19 SENTIMENT
Tracking COVID-19 As we near a year since the outbreak of the coronavirus, sentiment among the public suggests that we’re in this for the long haul. – By Laura Swire
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OVID-19 has disrupted our personal and professional lives to an almost unimaginable extent. C|T Group has been running a COVID-19 tracker poll since March in order to assess the public mood in Hong Kong, America, the UK and Australia. Our research produces actionable insights that enables business leaders to understand what is expected of them and how to communicate effectively with their customers, clients and communities. As countries have passed through multiple waves and government policies have snapped back and forth, we find continuous shifts in deeply held values and fundamental anxieties that far exceed peacetime fluctuations in public sentiment. We are also able to track both the establishment and disappointment of expectations as the world passes through almost unprecedented uncertainty, testing the tolerance of populations to endure economic pain and infringements on personal liberties. In our latest wave, we have seen people becoming more pessimistic on how long the pandemic will last, with ramifications for both preferences for government policy and management of personal finances. We have also begun to test issues surrounding vaccines, due to the prevalent expectation that they will be the silver bullet to end the crisis.
Changing expectations
support for prioritising introducing lockdowns when case numbers are rapidly rising.
Vaccination – a silver bullet? Across all markets a vaccine is often viewed as a silver bullet for the pandemic. Respondents in Hong Kong (64 per cent), Australia (63 per cent) and the UK (66 per cent) strongly believe that the pandemic will not end until there is a vaccine, whilst the figure is slightly lower in America at 49 per cent. In terms of timing, Hong Kong and the US are more confident that a vaccine will be available by early 2021 whilst the UK and Australia are more pessimistic and increasingly believe it won’t arrive until late 2021. Despite the faith in a vaccine’s ability to end the pandemic, none of the markets we surveyed had a majority who believed that a vaccine should be compulsory. When asked whether people should be allowed to decide whether to take the vaccine or not, 66 per cent of respondents in Hong Kong said yes, 68 per cent in America and 49 per cent in the UK and Australia. The high number of respondents in America in favour of freedom of choice is likely to reflect the relative strength of the anti-vaccination movement in that market. In Hong Kong, the results are relevant in the context of the government’s mooted policy of compulsory testing for certain groups. If the government goes ahead with this, it will need an effective communication strategy to allay any concerns.
In March, most respondents in Hong Kong believed ‘normal working life’ would resume within 1-4 months, whereas now more believe it will take a further 1-2 years. This continuing extension of the pandemic horizon is replicated The coronavirus pandemic will not end until there is a vaccine across the other three markets. Despite growing economic fears across the globe, majorities in all four markets still favour implementing another lockdown if required, even at the risk of inflicting further economic harm. The needs and concerns of individual stakeholders should not be dismissed, but our data shows that there is often majority
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Source: C|T Group
