Coronavirus health fears outweigh concern for economy, global survey
05 May, 2020
A substantial majority of people around the world want their governments to prioritize saving lives over moves to restart economies being hammered by measures aimed at halting the spread of the brand new coronavirus, a worldwide survey found.
The most recent findings of the "Edelman Trust Barometer," which for just two decades has polled thousands of people on the rely upon core institutions, challenge the idea that "lockdown fatigue" is rising among populations hit by the pandemic.
Overall, 67% of the 13,200-plus persons interviewed between April 15 and April 23 agreed with the statement: "The government's highest priority ought to be saving as much lives as possible even if this means the economy will recover more slowly."
Just one-third backed the assertion: "It really is becoming more very important to the government to save jobs and restart the economy than to take every precaution to keep persons safe."
The study, made by US communications company Edelman, was predicated on fieldwork completed in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the uk and the United States.
Some 76% of Japanese respondents agreed public health ought to be prioritized over the economy against just 56% in China, where in fact the outbreak was initially detected late this past year. China now has only a handful of new cases a day, after imposing a strict lockdown earlier.
In Canada, the UK and France, 70% or even more of the respondents were and only prioritizing health concerns. In the United States, where anti-lockdown protests in some instances were encouraged by President Donald Trump, the figure was 66%.
"It's complicated because you have two crises simultaneously - a health crisis and an monetary crisis," said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman.
"But people say, 'We've already had six to seven weeks of the [restriction on activity], what's another fourteen days?'"
Governments around the world have varied widely within their response to the pandemic since its first known outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in early December.
Authorities in New Zealand and Vietnam have been praised for early moves to prevent the spread with social distancing measures while governments in the United States, UK, Japan, Russia and elsewhere have faced criticism for too little preparedness.
The Edelman survey found, however, that rely upon the institution of government had risen over the board, with a standard gain of 11 points from its January survey to an all-time study high of 65%.
That figure reflected an appreciation of state support for the economy and the task of public health services. Conversely, only 29% agreed that CEOs and business leaders were doing an "outstanding job" meeting the demands of the moment.
"Business will be looked at very closely in the months ahead," Edelman said, citing how companies perform in areas such as retaining and reskilling personnel or using smaller businesses in their supply chains.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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