According to the Czech Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM), 68% of Czechs consider the government’s use of the anti-epidemic system (PES) to be poor, with 54% believing that PES is an ineffective approach in principle. More than half of respondents believe that measures should be decided on the basis of current developments. Photo Credit: Mzcr.cz.
Czech Rep., March 10 (BD) – An overwhelming majority of Czechs disagree with the use of the anti-epidemic system (PES), in operation since November 2020. The research was conducted by the Czech Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM) in the first half of February, to gauge public opinion and experience regarding the measures taken by public authorities against the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that 68% of respondents consider the government’s use of the PES system to be ineffective; less than a quarter (24%) consider it reliable. 59% of those surveyed said that PES is not adequate to calculate the degree of risk and set the appropriate measures.
53% also think that measures should be decided on the basis of current developments, while 42% are in favor of implementing them exactly as set out by PES. A detailed analysis of the data shows that there are certain demographic groups in Czech society that take more of an interest than others in the decisions being made about the anti-epidemic measures. People under the age of 45, university graduates, students, entrepreneurs, and generally men are more interested in the decisions taken by authorities. 33% of men and 22% of women participating in the survey said that the government and responsible authorities are using the PES system ‘very badly’. People under the age of 45 and those who ‘unquestionably do not trust’ the government were more likely to be dissatisfied with the use of the PES system. On the other hand, respondents with secondary education or without a high school diploma, and seniors over 65 years old were less interested in the changes to the PES system, signalling support for the government and responsible authorities’ decision-making on anti-epidemic measures.
Another related finding of the study was that 82% of Czech residents over the age of 18 are very interested in the development of the spread of new mutations of COVID-19. The study found that approximately nine out of ten Czechs wear masks or respirators (94%) and obey hygiene standards (89%).
