Covid-19: The emotional swing

Phase 0, Phase 1 and Phase 2: citizens from all over the world lived through the days of the pandemic, radically changing their habits. And many of them are still frightened by the risk of contagion.

The days of the pandemic are not over, but with the beginning of Phase 2 the worst moment of the health emergency in Italy seems to be behind us. At least for now, contagions from Coronavirus continue to fall: according to the latest data of the Civil Protection, patients from Covid-19 have decreased by 2,809 in 24 hours. Despite the good news on the epidemiological front, however, the derailment that our life has suffered in recent months is likely to leave us off the rails for a long time. But from the point of view of contagion, Italians seem to have less fear for their health than citizens of other countries – the United States in the first place.

According to the study Together beyond Covid-19 of T.R.A. (The Research Alliance), which also includes Istituto Piepoli, in America 78% of people (therefore almost 8 out of 10) are afraid of being infected with Sars-CoV-2 infection. The sentiment seems to depend in part on the management of Donald Trump’s emergency (37% of respondents are not satisfied with the work of his administration), in part on the boom in infections and victims recorded in recent weeks. Currently, according to data from John Hopkins University, the United States is the first country in the world by number of cases (1,379,756) and deaths (83,150).

As for the Italians – who have spent the first 10 days of the end of the lockdown – more than 6 out of 10 citizens (62%) believe that there is still a high risk for their health. According to what emerged from the study, the most relevant element in Italy concerns the perception of the future: the great majority of respondents are convinced that the current crisis will be worse than the financial crisis of 2008.