12 March 2025

Hi folks,

It’s been five years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, and much of the world went into lockdown. In this special edition, we’re looking back at how life has changed - what’s shifted, what’s stayed the same, and some things you might have forgotten from the pandemic's early days.

Scroll down to read about our changing attitudes to sick days, the country where people never went back to cinemas, and the surprising popularity of emails from CEOs.

That was then...

⌚ If you go by the WHO timeline, then the pandemic was a public health emergency for three years and four months. But in March 2020, only 12% of people felt the pandemic would last longer than a year (though most revised their estimates upwards later on).

📉 Peak concern about the virus came at the start of April 2020. To use the UK as an example, 68% were very or extremely concerned about the situation in the country. As you might imagine, that’s the highest rate of concern we’ve ever seen for anything. For context, that compares to the 45% concerned about Covid in December 2020, and the 48% currently concerned about microplastics. 

🚪 One of the really interesting things about lockdowns is that they weren’t massively popular until they were implemented. In a survey we ran between March 16-20 2020, there was a huge gap in demand for lockdowns between countries that had just brought them in (as high as 8 in 10 for France and Spain) and those that hadn’t yet (3 in 10 for South Africa and the UK). It’s a reminder that policy often guides public opinion, not the other way around.  

🏛️ In general, governments enjoyed more support and approval than you might remember. It seems difficult to believe now (especially in the UK, where a scandal about government parties shaped the narrative), but in the early stages, three-quarters of consumers globally approved of their government’s response.

📩 Likewise, it seems odd in hindsight that so many businesses sent emails to us outlining their plans and urging us to stay safe. And perhaps not all of them were essential. But there was massive demand for this at the time - 8 in 10 approved of brands reaching out to customers about their pandemic responses.

🐬 Another classic meme from the early pandemic was “nature is healing” - when reduced human activity brought wildlife back to Venice and other areas. And in the summer of 2020 we saw a 28% increase in optimism about the environment - an enormous spike for attitudinal data. But even more striking than its sudden growth was its rapid fall - that optimism soon went back to its previous levels. 

Most of the above data is from special studies into Covid-19 that GWI conducted throughout 2020 - further resources can be found here.

...and this is now

😷 Many expected a persistent worry about infectious diseases, with widespread mask-wearing and hand sanitizing, to continue forever - but we probably underestimated how quickly public concerns can change. Right now, concern about infectious diseases (29%) has almost been overtaken by concern about AI (26%). GWI USA

😨 This translates to how people think about the future as well. Fewer consumers are concerned about another pandemic (33%) as they are about the data security implications of using AI tools (51%) or cybersecurity (46%).  GWI Zeitgeist

😫 That said, one of the the big impacts people feel five years on is increased likelihood of staying home if sick, or taking a sick day off work - especially in the US. The biggest permanent change of all, though, is taking extra precautions around health in general (38%). GWI Zeitgeist

🧠 The biggest negative impacts of the pandemic have been psychological, with reduced social interaction (35%) and stress (30%) among them. GWI Zeitgeist

🚿 Still, the pandemic hasn’t been all downsides. 36% say it’s given them better hygiene habits, while a third believe it’s given them a greater appreciation for life. GWI Zeitgeist 

Chart of the week

Ever since non-essential businesses closed and people stayed at home, one big question has kept coming back: when will things get “back to normal”?

Some things have. Restaurants, public transportation, and consumer confidence have all (just about) returned to 2019 levels within a 5 year timeframe. Other things seem to be taking much longer to rebound - assuming they ever will. 

Not even Taylor Swift’s record-breaking world tour has been able to drag back more concertgoers, while foreign holidays and cinema visits also remain stubbornly low. And for all the recent headlines about return to office mandates, the number who regularly work in an office is still well below where it was. 

Local lowdown

The country where cinemas never came back

This week’s chart shows the global average recovery across a host of activities that were impacted by lockdowns. But they are of course, only averages - some countries have seen quicker and slower recoveries. And few countries have seen their film industry upended as much as the Philippines. 

Before Covid, less than 1 in 10 Filipinos never went to the cinema. But after one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns, that figure is now 1 in 5, and many have turned to online alternatives instead - with a 38% growth in paying for streaming services. 

Part of this stems from the big economic impact of lockdowns in the country. Where other countries tend to see psychological effects as the biggest negative consequence of lockdown, Filipinos put financial difficulties in first place.

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