London based online market research agency FlyResearch has been issuing weekly polls to its research panel of over 3000 people throughout the coronavirus lockdown in the UK, in order to project how the outbreak and the implementing of social distancing has been impacting the daily life of UK citizens. This week, managing partner Greg Ward discusses the findings from the 26th wave of the Covid-19 tracker survey with the Leaders Council, published on September 25 and sourced from data collected on September 18, and with restrictions beginning to return to control the spread of the virus, opinions of the government’s handling of the crisis began to worsen with the lingering sense of déjà vu.
The fortunate aspect of the latest poll was that although the rate of cases is on the rise and further restrictions are coming back into place, it had little bearing on the physical and emotional health of the panel. Notably, however, a joint-low of 51 per cent of respondents [last seen in week 14] reported that they were not suffering any physical or emotional symptoms. 38 per cent - consistent with last week - reported that they were experiencing emotional struggles, and the percentage of those displaying mild symptoms remained at nine per cent.
With regards to the friends and family of panel members, the figures once again showed no major changes from the previous week’s data but there were some marginal shifts in concerning areas.
There was a third consecutive week of 38 per cent of the panel declaring that their associates were not suffering from Covid-19 at all, while the rate of those reporting that friends and family were struggling mentally remained at 30 per cent like last week. The quantity of people reporting that they have friends or family displaying mild Covid symptoms has increased by one percentage point to 17 per cent, and a further one per cent [16 per cent overall] now declare that they have associates that have been tested for the virus. There has also been an unfortunate one per cent increase in the number of people who know somebody that has passed away as a result of Covid, which stands now at 13 per cent. The same rate of increase was also seen in the number of people who report that they have an associate experiencing more severe symptoms of the virus, which now stands at 11 per cent.
There was more positive news to be found in the employment statistics, as Ward pointed out that the rate of people who were still employed reached an all-time high of 45 per cent, having risen by one per cent compared to last week.
Ward commented: “This positive shift could be down to the government’s drive to get people back to work safely, combined with more and more businesses accepting remote working or working with new safety measures in place as the new normal.”
Elsewhere, two per cent of the panel declared themselves redundant for a third week in a row, the percentage of people furloughed fell by one per cent [to eight per cent] and 37 per cent of the panel continued to describe themselves as ‘not working’, consistent with the most recent poll.
Although panel members did not display any seismic shift in their physical or emotional health, the exact emotions that they have been experiencing continued on a worrying trend.
Ward explained: “Last week, we saw the prevalence of people saying that they felt ‘concerned’ about the ongoing situation shoot up from 43 per cent to 55 per cent. This week that figure stands at 61 per cent.
“We also have an all-time high in the proportion of people who feel angry about all of this, which is now 31 per cent, having increased by three per cent compared to last week. This shift has also seen a blow delivered to the number of people who feel ‘hopeful’ for the future, which has declined from 18 per cent last time out to a new low of just 12 per cent.”
As the positive emotions began to deteriorate, so did the panel’s opinions of ministers and how they have been handling the pandemic.
Ward said: “It really does seem now as if the general consensus of the panel is that the government has dropped the ball in all of this. We can see a rising trend in how badly people think they are doing. On our one to ten ratings scale - one being that their pandemic response has been disastrous and ten representing that they have handled affairs well - we saw 41 per cent score the government in the bottom three two weeks ago, which rose to 45 per cent last week and has now steadily increased again to 49 per cent. In fact, the highest ever percentage of respondents at 25 per cent, scored them a one out of ten.
“Meanwhile, a minority of 12 per cent now feel the government have done a good job and scored their response in the eight to ten range, down two per cent on last week. Elsewhere, 39 per cent occupy the middle ground of the four to seven range, down two per cent compared to our last poll.”
Despite the lack of approval for the government’s pandemic response, there does not appear to be any consensus on how quickly or how slowly the government is easing lockdown restrictions, according to the latest feedback.
An equal split of 37 per cent apiece feel that the government is moving too slowly in its lifting of lockdown restrictions, and too quickly in doing so. The remaining 26 per cent stated that they were currently satisfied with the speed in which measures were being lifted.
On the -100 to +100 speed calculation survey, which looks to summarise the panel’s overall view on the pace of restriction easing, this week’s score shifted from last week’s +10 to +1 this time around, closest to the perfect score of zero, owing to the even split of respondents that feel restrictions are being lifted too slowly and too quickly.
The guest question which concluded the latest survey focused on the rising numbers of coronavirus cases and who was to blame.
Summarising the feedback, Ward said: “The first major thing we noticed is that 42 per cent of the panel place the blame on the government for the rising rate of cases, with 28 per cent saying that prime minister Boris Johnson is specifically responsible.
“29 per cent of respondents held a very different view, saying that businesses were to blame for not taking Covid-secure precautions properly. Another 20 per cent said that they blame young people for not following the rules.
“Yet, the majority, a huge 78 per cent, agreed that the blame should not be pinned squarely on the shoulders of young people, but rather anyone who is not taking care and abiding by guidelines. The media and the government’s scientific advisors got the lowest share of responsibility, with just 11 per cent and six per cent suggesting they were at fault in some way. Finally, five per cent of the panel felt that all of this is just hype and nobody is to blame for anything. But, with the new national restrictions recently announced by the prime minister to be covered in the next poll, it will be interesting to see how things change across all of the questions in the next week.”
