What factors drive the satisfaction of citizens with governments' responses to COVID-19?

Objectives: This research scrutinizes the important factors influencing the satisfaction of citizens concerning their governments' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic based on an open-sourced survey of 14 countries. Methods: To collect information on public sentiment regarding governments' reactions to COVID-19, we consider five factors for analysis: number of confirmed cases per million population, number of deaths per million population, and governments' containment and health policies, stringency policies, and economic support policies. We examine the Kendall correlations of variables in the 14 countries and use the wild bootstrap method for regression models to find important regressors. Results: Our results show that people pay stronger attention to the results of their governments' battle against COVID-19 (number of confirmed cases and deaths per million population) rather than to what policies they initiate. Health policy and economic support do influence the approval of any national response to COVID-19. We also find that public satisfaction in Japan and South Korea toward the two governments' responses to the pandemic varies greatly compared to that of other countries' citizens to their governments' responses. Conclusions: The results herein offer some suggestions to governments when initiating policies to balance public health, livelihoods, and economic support. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Automated summary

This research analyzes open-source survey data from 14 countries and finds that the public pays more attention to the effectiveness of government responses to COVID-19 rather than the policies themselves. Health policies and economic support policies impact public approval of national responses. Citizens in Japan and South Korea have significantly different levels of satisfaction with their government responses compared to other countries.