Austrians increasingly relaxed about coronavirus

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In Austria, the willingness to accept restrictions to fight the pandemic is reducing.

This is shown by the latest round of the “Corona Sentiment Barometer” conducted by the Gallup Institute. In it, nearly half of respondents said they thought the threat posed by the coronavirus was exaggerated.

Regular Corona mood barometer

The Gallup Institute began surveying common public sentiment about the corona crisis before the first lockdown in March 2020. At that time, most people in Austria were still quite relaxed: 53 percent agreed with the statement “that the danger posed by the coronavirus is exaggerated.” However, by the end of March/beginning of April – at the height of the first wave of coronas – this figure had already shrunk to just 20 percent. Conversely, up to three-quarters of people at that time said they were afraid of infection for themselves or a family member. And up to 95 percent said they were willing to temporarily give up some of their rights to freedom to prevent the spread of the virus.

Fear of Corona infection has decreased in Austria

Since then, the fear of infection and the willingness to make restrictions have dropped significantly. In the most recent survey wave in February, 45 percent already stated that they considered the danger exaggerated. Conversely, 46 percent expressed fear of infection. For the first time in almost two years, the two groups were more or less balanced. Until then, fear of disease had always predominated.

Andrea Fronaschütz of the Gallup Institute told APA that the development was due to a combination of the high infection figures and the fact that the situation in hospitals was not communicated as dramatic. What is striking to her is how quickly the essential trust in politics, which was high at the beginning of the pandemic, was squandered again: While more than 90 percent of people in Austria trusted the government’s pandemic management at the end of March 2020, the figure was only 23 percent in November 2021. Most recently, trust has risen again. In February, 37 percent said “that the Austrian government is handling the coronavirus properly.” In the previous October, it was still 42 percent.

However, the willingness to temporarily give up civil liberties to contain the pandemic is at an all-time low. Only 67 percent are willing to accept restrictions for this purpose. By comparison, in March 2020, the figure was almost 95 percent. Fronaschütz attributes the fact that two-thirds of respondents are still willing to accept restrictions to the “learning curve” in the course of the pandemic: “We have learned that certain measures have an effect – such as wearing a mask and keeping a distance.”