Public perspective on the governmental response, communication and trust in the governmental decisions in mitigating COVID-19 early in the pandemic across the G7 countries

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to global health and security inciting governments with the responsibility to respond with measures that ensure the health and safety of their communities. We assessed public attitudes towards governmental actions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the G7 countries. Data were collected during 19th–21st March 2020, from 7005 Kantar's online panelists aged >16 years across the G7 countries: Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Data were post-stratified and weighted to match population distributions of the respective countries. Descriptive and multivariable analyses were conducted. Amongst the G7, Japan had the lowest level of approval of governmental response to the pandemic, rating governmental communication as good, and trusting governmental decisions (35.0%, 33.6%, and 38.0%, respectively), followed by the U.S. (52.9%, 64.6%, and 59.9%, respectively). Understanding of which measures one can personally take to help limit the spread of the coronavirus was significantly associated with approving governmental response (aOR = 2.88), rating government communication as good (aOR = 2.70) and trust in future governmental decisions (aOR = 2.73). Those who reported government/politicians and friends/family as their most trusted information source were more likely to report approval, higher rating, and/or trust toward governmental actions. Public attitudes towards governmental actions against COVID-19 varied substantially across the G7 countries and were associated with the understanding of measures and source of information that respondents most trusted. Timely and accurate communication is essential to enhance public engagement to control the COVID-19 pandemic.