The pandemic has increased public confidence in science

The epidemic had a major impact on people’s perception and confidence in science. A survey released by the Wellcome Trust, a London-based health research organization, in partnership with Gallup, found that 80% of respondents had “extreme” or “some” confidence in science. Latin America was one of the regions where the increase in this trust was more expressive compared to the 2018 data: 40% said they trusted “a lot,” compared to 26% in the previous survey.

The researchers also measured the level of trust in governments to confront the epidemic. In Brazil, only 22% of respondents think the government values ​​science highly when making public health decisions related to Covid-19. The confidence index rises to 54% in relation to the decisions of the World Health Organization.

In addition to science, the survey analyzed how seriously different countries were affected by the health crisis. About 80% of respondents said they were affected, 45% more severe, while 35% felt “some” the impact. Globally, one in three people lost their jobs before the pandemic spread. The effect was mainly felt in low per capita income countries, where 45% of respondents said they had lost work. In rich countries, the unemployment rate is 10%.

The data was compiled from interviews with 119,000 people in 113 countries between August 2020 and February 2021, which is before vaccines were widely available for a large part of the world’s population.