Covid-19: did higher trust societies fare better?

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Public Health
• Political Science

Background:

• Social trust and governmental trust were proposed as crucial for managing COVID-19.
• Alternative views suggested authoritarian regimes were more effective at controlling the virus.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically test the impact of social trust, governmental trust, and societal structures on COVID-19 mortality.
• To analyze these relationships across different country groups and time periods, including pre- and post-new variants.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of cumulative COVID-19 deaths as the dependent variable.
• Comparative study across OECD countries, associated nations, and including China.
• Stratification of data by time periods: pre-late 2020 variants and post-late 2020 variants until September 2021.

Main Results:

• Higher social trust and trust in government correlated with lower COVID-19 death rates.
• Vaccine antipathy did not significantly influence outcomes; authoritarian regimes showed no performance benefit.
• Increasing wealth inequality was linked to higher deaths in the initial period; hospital bed availability was significant then but not later.

Conclusions:

• Trust in government and interpersonal trust are vital for public health crisis management.
• The effectiveness of societal factors like trust diminishes over time, and cultural/institutional transfers are complex.
• Lessons learned from COVID-19 may inform responses to future public health emergencies like monkeypox.