Coronavirus Pandemic: Research at the HCHE

In health economic terms, the current crisis situation also raises many questions, for example how the population deals with the threat of the corona virus and to what extent it follows political decisions such as the ban on contact.

Therefore, we are currently investigating the following topics in a large-scale study in 7 countries:

• Information policy and trust in information sources
• Agreement on the restrictions and relaxations
• Individual, financial and economic concerns
• Opinion on the Tracing-App
• Confidence in shops and service providers that the protection measure will be implemented
• Vaccination readiness
• Own handling of the prescribed protective measures
• Willingness to donate blood

In the meantime, three waves of surveys have taken place; you can find the results on the right.

The latest evaluation deals with vaccination readiness and attitudes towards public events:
While concerns about someone's own health are currently increasing again with in the number of infections rising again, the willingness to comply with distance and hygiene rules is noticeably decreasing. This is shown by the latest figures from the representative survey by the Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE) at the University of Hamburg of more than 7,000 people in Germany and six other European countries. The survey furthermore finds reservations about large crowds - but also about vaccinations.

According to the results, almost one in four people in Germany believes they are at high risk of infection. After this number decreased between April and June, it has now increased by three percentage points since June. These findings are similar across countries - in France and Portugal the numbers in September are even significantly higher than at the beginning of the pandemic in April.

Despite these growing concerns, fewer and fewer people adhere to the distance and hygiene rules. Only 45% of people in Germany say that they follow distance regulations and only 39% adhere to recommended hand hygiene rules. Hugs, kisses and greeting handshakes are on the rise again: only 58% of participants are currently avoiding them, in April it was still 77%. "We have noticed that the increasing numbers of infections are frightening the population, but at the same time that a certain amount of fatigue can be seen when following the rules," says Professor Dr. Jonas Schreyögg, Scientific Director of the HCHE.

The number of people who oppose vaccinations is growing
Attitudes towards vaccinations have also changed:  While 70 percent of people in Germany were ready to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 in April, currently only a little more than half of them still express that readiness; a tendency present in all EU countries participating in the survey. The proportion of those who are explicitly against vaccination is growing in particular while the number of people who are undecided is unchanged.

"We were able to determine that the people who oppose vaccination are above all people who do not see any health risk for themselves from Corona or who have no trust in the information policy of their government or organizations like the WHO," says Schreyögg. "It is therefore important to make further efforts to strengthen trust in public information and to minimize the risk of cluster outbreaks in the future."

In front of empty stands: football, concerts & Co.
Although many people are now increasingly carefree, they all agree in their skepticism towards large crowds. Only 25% of respondents in Germany think that football matches should take place with spectators again, 56% are against it. Only 15% would currently want to go to a stadium. "In a country where every second person is a football fan, that is an astonishingly low figure," said Schreyögg. A similar picture emerges for music concerts: only 24% of those surveyed can imagine pop and rock concerts with an audience, and only 18% would attend one.

People are less concerned when it comes to cinemas and theaters. 38 percent each agree with screenings or performances with an audience present. The willingness to attend is somewhat greater than to attend stadiums and concerts, but more than one in two currently thinks it is unlikely to go to a cinema or theater performance.