Covid: Third of voters think pandemic has lowered UK’s global reputation

The findings, from a survey to mark Professor Devi Sridhar’s Fulbright Distinguished Lecture on “preventing the next pandemic”, reveal that voters are more likely to think the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis has damaged rather than improved its standing.

Some 36% say it has a negative impact on the UK’s reputation around the world, compared with 21% who think it has had a positive impact and 31% who think it has made no difference.

Produced by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and Ipsos MORI, the figures put the UK on a par with the United States in terms of how negatively its Covid response is viewed by its own citizens.

In the US, 38% think the country’s handling of the pandemic has had a negative impact on its international reputation, while 21% think its impact has been positive and 25% feel it has had no effect.

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Both the US and UK fare worse on this measure than Canada, where people are more likely to say the pandemic response has improved the country’s reputation than damaged it (33% vs 19%) and also more likely to say it’s made no difference (37%).

A total of 144,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, which is the highest loss of life in Europe.

In Germany 98,602 lives have been lost and in France the figure stands at 119,284 despite both countries having larger populations. The UK’s population is 67.3 million, compared to Germany’s at 83.2m and France at 67.4m.

Experts say the UK was slow to lock down and seal its borders when the pandemic first hit in late winter to early spring last year, losing what could have been a natural advantage as an island. They say the experience has perhaps lead to UK voters continuing to hold concerns about opening up internationally.

The Ipsos Mori survey’s findings found that 36% of Britons now agree more with the view that the country should take further steps to protect itself from today’s world – up from 23% in 2019.

Correspondingly, the proportion who lean more towards thinking the UK should further open itself up to today’s world has declined from 41% to 31% over the same period, meaning slightly more people are now against greater openness than are in favour of it – a reversal of the situation in 2019.

However, compared with Americans (18%) and Canadians (24%), Britons (31%) still agree more with the view that their country needs to open itself up to today’s world.

People in the US are by far the most likely to think their nation should do more to protect itself, with a majority of 55% holding this view.

The UK and US public are divided on co-operating versus going it alone on Covid. In both people are relatively split on whether their countries should prioritise working closely with other nations to tackle Covid together or combatting the virus at home.

Thirty-six per cent of Britons and 34% of Americans agree more with making international co-operation the priority – but at the same time, 31% in both nations think the focus should be on measures at home to tackle the pandemic in their own country. By contrast, in Canada people are more likely to think close international working (34%) should be prioritised over measures in their own country (25%).

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The research also found there is an appetite for greater co-operation on global health issues.

A majority in Canada, the UK and the US think their nation should work more closely with other countries on other global health issues, such as access to medical products and potential future pandemics, than it did pre-Covid.

Some 55% or more of people in all three countries feel this way, with only small minorities holding the opposing view and around a quarter saying the level of international co-operation should remain the same as it was before the crisis.

Sridhar said: “These latest results show that although concerns about opening up to the world have

increased in the UK and US recent years, most people still think greater co-operation between nations on global health issues is a good thing.

“We can see how international co-operation can create momentum in tackling financial crises and climate change. However, this has not been the case for Covid-19 with many countries going it on their own and not learning from others, which has meant the pandemic has been prolonged.

“To prepare and overcome the next pandemic it is imperative that we work multilaterally.”

Bobby Duffy (below), professor of public policy and director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “The public in the UK and the US seem in two minds on whether each country should hunker down and protect themselves or reach out to the rest of the world now the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how connected we are.

“But it’s actually an understandable response – people feel like we should think of ourselves first in the current crisis, but work with others to help prevent future global health challenges.”

Kelly Beaver, chief executive of Ipsos MORI, said: “The concerns about global health issues such as the pandemic have clearly sunk in with the public in the UK, who are now more likely to believe that the country should take further steps to protect itself from today’s world.”

Sridhar, who advises the Scottish Government on the pandemic, will deliver the 2021 Fulbright Distinguished Lecture at 5pm this evening.

The title of her talk is Preventing The Next Pandemic: What Have We Learned About International Health Collaboration And What Needs To Change?”