Public perceptions of health and economic impacts during COVID-19: Findings from a repeated cross-national survey in the US, UK and Germany (2020–2022)

Abstract

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected both health and economic domains at individual, national and global levels, sparking public debate about the severity of these impacts and the necessity of protective measures. This study compared the perceived severity of the pandemic’s impacts across three dimensions: (a) domain (health vs economy), (b) target (self, own country, world) and (c) country (US, UK and Germany), over time (April 2020 to January 2022).

Methods We administered a serial cross-sectional online survey as part of the ‘EUCLID’ project. A total of 78 498 participants from the US, UK and Germany completed the questionnaire across 26 waves per country—78 survey waves in total. Data collection used quota-sampling to approximate national distributions by age group x gender.

Results Perceived health (M=3.41, SD=1.07) and economic (M=3.69, SD=1.09) impacts were rated as moderate to serious (scale: 1–5). Most participants showed individual optimism, perceiving the impact on themselves as less severe than on their country or the world (e.g., health: 55.6% self vs country, 66.0% self vs world; economy: 66.0% and 67.5%, respectively). Conversely, national optimism was less common (health: 33.5%, economy: 15.9%). These patterns remained largely consistent across countries and time points.

Conclusion Although the pandemic was fundamentally a health crisis, participants perceived its economic impact as more severe. Most individuals were personally optimistic but showed little national-level optimism. This indicates that they perceived their country to be affected at least as much as, or possibly more than, the global average. Notably, participants in three of the world’s largest economies viewed their national economic situation as equally impacted as the global average—potentially weakening the perceived need for international support and solidarity.