Department of Global Health and Development, Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Epidemiology & Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 16;16(2):e0239247. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239247. eCollection 2021.
The success of a government's COVID-19 control strategy relies on public trust and broad acceptance of response measures. We investigated public perceptions of the UK government's COVID-19 response, focusing on the relationship between trust and perceived transparency, during the first wave (April 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
Anonymous survey data were collected (2020-04-06 to 2020-04-22) from 9,322 respondents, aged 20+ using an online questionnaire shared primarily through Facebook. We took an embedded-mixed-methods approach to data analysis. Missing data were imputed via multiple imputation. Binomial & multinomial logistic regression were used to detect associations between demographic characteristics and perceptions or opinions of the UK government's response to COVID-19. Structural topic modelling (STM), qualitative thematic coding of sub-sets of responses were then used to perform a thematic analysis of topics that were of interest to key demographic groups.
Most respondents (95.1%) supported government enforcement of behaviour change. While 52.1% of respondents thought the government was making good decisions, differences were apparent across demographic groups, for example respondents from Scotland had lower odds of responding positively than respondents in London. Higher educational levels saw decreasing odds of having a positive opinion of the government response and decreasing household income associated with decreasing positive opinion. Of respondents who thought the government was not making good decisions 60% believed the economy was being prioritised over people and their health. Positive views on government decision-making were associated with positive views on government transparency about the COVID-19 response. Qualitative analysis about perceptions of government transparency highlighted five key themes: (1) the justification of opacity due to the condition of crisis, (2) generalised mistrust of politics, (3) concerns about the role of scientific evidence, (4) quality of government communication and (5) questions about political decision-making processes.
Our study suggests that trust is not homogenous across communities, and that generalised mistrust, concerns about the transparent use and communication of evidence and insights into decision-making processes can affect perceptions of the government's pandemic response. We recommend targeted community engagement, tailored to the experiences of different groups and a new focus on accountability and openness around how decisions are made in the response to the UK COVID-19 pandemic.
政府 COVID-19 防控策略的成功取决于公众信任和广泛接受应对措施。我们调查了公众对英国政府 COVID-19 应对措施的看法，重点关注信任与感知透明度之间的关系，这是在英国 COVID-19 大流行的第一波（2020 年 4 月）期间进行的。
使用在线问卷从 9322 名 20 岁以上的受访者中匿名收集了（2020 年 4 月 6 日至 2020 年 4 月 22 日）的调查数据，该问卷主要通过 Facebook 共享。我们采用嵌入式混合方法进行数据分析。通过多次插补对缺失数据进行插补。二项和多项逻辑回归用于检测人口统计学特征与对英国政府 COVID-19 应对措施的看法或意见之间的关联。然后使用结构主题建模（STM）、对部分回复的定性主题编码，对关键人口群体感兴趣的主题进行主题分析。
大多数受访者（95.1%）支持政府实施行为改变。虽然 52.1%的受访者认为政府做出了正确的决策，但在不同的人群中存在差异，例如，来自苏格兰的受访者对政府的反应比来自伦敦的受访者更不积极。较高的教育水平降低了对政府应对措施持积极看法的可能性，家庭收入降低与对政府应对措施的积极看法降低有关。在认为政府没有做出正确决策的受访者中，有 60%的人认为政府将经济置于人民和他们的健康之上。对政府决策制定的积极看法与对 COVID-19 应对措施的政府透明度的积极看法有关。关于政府透明度看法的定性分析突出了五个关键主题：（1）由于危机状况而使不透明合理化，（2）普遍不信任政治，（3）对科学证据的作用的关注，（4）政府沟通质量和（5）对政治决策过程的质疑。
我们的研究表明，信任在社区之间并非同质的，普遍的不信任，对透明使用证据和对决策过程的洞察力的关注，会影响公众对政府大流行应对措施的看法。我们建议针对不同群体的经验进行有针对性的社区参与，并将重点放在英国 COVID-19 大流行应对措施中决策过程的问责制和开放性上。
