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Global responses to Covid-19Global responses to Covid-19
About the author
Natasha Kassam
Natasha Kassam was Director of the Lowy Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program from 2019 to 2022, directing the annual Lowy Institute Poll and researching China’s politics, Taiwan, and Australia-China relations.
Australians continue to be extremely confident in Australia’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, ranking Australia well ahead of five other countries included in this year’s survey.
Almost all Australian adults (95%) say that Australia has handled Covid-19 ‘very well’ or ‘fairly well’ so far. The proportion that say Australia has handled Covid-19 very well has jumped from 43% in 2020 to 65% in 2021.
Despite tensions in the Australia-China relationship, Australian views of China’s handling of Covid-19 have improved over the past year. However, fewer than half (45%) say China has handled Covid-19 fairly or very well, an increase of 14 points from 2020.
Asked about Taiwan’s handling of the virus, two-thirds (66%) say that Taiwan has handled Covid-19 well. Fieldwork for the Lowy Institute Poll was carried out prior to the recent Covid-19 outbreak in Taiwan.
The majority of Australians say that India has not handled Covid-19 well so far, even though fieldwork for this polling was conducted prior to the dramatic increase in Covid-19 cases in India in April 2021. Only a quarter of Australians (27%) say India has handled Covid-19 very or fairly well.
Despite strong progress in UK and American vaccine rollouts, Australian views of the United Kingdom and the United States’ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic have worsened from a low base. One in five Australians (19%) say the United Kingdom has handled Covid-19 very or fairly well, an 11-point drop from 2020.
As in 2020, the United States sits at the bottom of this list of six countries. No Australians (0%) say that the United States has handled Covid-19 very well. Only 7% of Australians say the United States has handled the pandemic fairly well. Nine in ten Australians (92%) say that the United States has handled Covid-19 very or fairly badly.
