LTV “Panorama” reported on Thursday that out of 1,000 respondents surveyed in November, more than a fifth or 22.5% have admitted that one of their closest acquaintances has been diagnosed with Covid-19.
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One in four or 25% of respondents thought they were infected themselves,
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but more than 56% know someone who has been infected. As late as April, only 5% of respondents personally knew a Covid-19 patient.
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At the same time, the treatment of this disease becomes more frivolous – only half of the respondents (49%) consider Covid-19 to be a very dangerous infectious disease. This opinion was expressed by 51% of respondents who speak Latvian in their families, but among Russian-speakers only 46% of respondents take this infection seriously.
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In contrast, 28% believe that, in principle, Covid-19 is nothing more serious than “ordinary flu”. This is the opinion of every fourth respondent or 26% of respondents with a Latvian-speaking family, and 32% of Russian-speakers.
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Nearly a third, or 31%, said Covid-19 was an “inflated take” by politicians and the media, not a real problem.
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There are also differences in this issue according to the everyday colloquial language used in the family – such an opinion was much more popular among Russian speakers (44%), but Covid-19 considers only 23% of Latvian speakers to be “inflated”.
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Such differences of opinion are largely related to the fragmented information space, the program notes, noting that the sources of information and opinion leaders that people trust also differ.
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Respondents had the opportunity to mark several variants of answers, therefore the total amount of interest exceeds 100%.
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Commenting on the changes in public attitudes, SKDS director Arnis Kaktins explained that the surge of frivolity is related both to the fact that since the beginning of the pandemic “all kinds of nonsense and stupidity have been produced incomparably more” and to different personal experiences – some people have experienced serious cases, but much more facing a very mild course of the disease.
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In turn, the associate professor of Riga Stradiņš University, philosopher Vents Sīlis, said that the conditions when people look for simple answers to complex questions are used by “all kinds of strangers” and conspiracy theorists, trying to manipulate opinions and information for their own benefit.
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