Second Wave is a Matter of Time

More than half of Israelis think a second wave is a matter of time and 39% think that the return to normalcy is too fast.

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A special survey by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute examined public opinion about government policies relating to the coronavirus outbreak and the economic fallout from the pandemic. The survey finds that the public’s trust in Prime Minister Netanyahu on handling the crisis, has continued to decline, while trust in the government’s health experts continue to be high.

Survey Highlights

Resuming Routine – 39% of Israelis think that the steps taken by the government to restore the economy were implemented too fast, 30% think they were appropriate and 25% think they were too slow.

In your opinion, are the actions taken to restore the economy too quick or too slow:

Decline in Trust in Crisis Management –Public trust in some of the governmental authorities and public officials managing the corona crisis has continued to decline. Up until the middle of April, most of the Israeli public (54%-57%) said they had trust in Prime Minister Netanyahu's handling of the pandemic. Now 44% of Israelis said they trust Prime Minister Netanyahu’s management of the crisis.

Segmenting the Jewish sample by self-positioning on the ultra-Orthodox-secular indicates levels of trust in Netanyahu’s management of the crisis among 71%-75% of National-Religious, Traditional-Religious and Haredim, among Traditional-non-Religious 54% and among secular 27.5%.

61% trust the government’s health experts. However trust in government economic experts stand at 38% (down from 47% in April).

Fear for economic future – the level of fear for economic well-being has not changed significantly and 49% of Jewish Israelis and 66% of Arab Israelis fear for their economic wellbeing.

To what extent do you fear or not fear for your economic wellbeing in the foreseeable future? (as per level of income)

Second Wave of Corona – 54.5% of Israelis think that there is a high chance of a second wave of coronavirus. Nevertheless, people are less afraid. 49% of Israeli Jews and 55.5% of Arab Israelis are afraid of contracting the coronavirus (down from 76% and 70% respectively on March 26th).

The survey Israel in the Time of Coronavirus 8 is a project of the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. In the survey, which was conducted on the internet and by telephone (supplements of groups that are not sufficiently represented on the network) from May 17 to May 18, 2020, 600 men and women were interviewed in Hebrew and 154 in Arabic, constituting a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older. The maximum sampling error for the entire sample was 3.7%± at a confidence level of 95%. The fieldwork was done by the Rafi Smith Institute under the direction of Rafi Smith. For the full data file see: Data Israel