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. 2024 Apr 10:15:1310594.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1310594. eCollection 2024.

Lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from a polarized scenario in Brazil

Karla Gonçalves Camacho  1   2 , Daniella Campelo Batalha Cox Moore  1   3 , Maria de Fátima Junqueira-Marinho  4 , Saint Clair Gomes Junior  4 , Adriana Teixeira Reis  2   5 , Dimitri Marques Abramov  6
Affiliations

Lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from a polarized scenario in Brazil

Karla Gonçalves Camacho et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led many countries to adopt strict measures aimed at reducing circulation of the virus and mitigating the burden on health services. Among these, the lockdown (social distancing/confinement) was probably the most controversial and most widely debated, since it affected the population's daily life abruptly, with consequences for people's emotional state and the operational logic of various economic sectors.

Objective: Analyze the relationship been Brazilians' opinions on lockdown during the pandemic and individual, sociodemographic, and belief characteristics.

Methods: We conducted an online survey to evaluate Brazilians' opinions on the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We prepared a questionnaire with questions on sociodemographic aspects and individuals' points of view toward the lockdown. We sent a link for the survey through social media and encouraged participants to also share the link in their respective social networks, as a snowball sample. Cluster analysis was performed to identify different opinion profiles. Cluster Analysis is a multivariate approach that aims to segment a set of data into distinct groups, using some classification criteria.

Results: From April to May 2021, the link received 33,796 free participations via social networks from all over Brazil. We analyzed data from 33,363 participants. Pro-lockdown opinions predominated in most of the sociodemographic strata. Cluster analysis identified two groups: pro-lockdown, aligned with the scientific recommendations, and anti-lockdown, characterized by economic insecurity and denialism. Anti-lockdown participants downplayed the pandemic's seriousness and believed in unproven measures to fight SARS-CoV-2. However, these same participants were afraid of losing their jobs and of being unable to pay their bills. In general, participants did not believe in the feasibility of a lockdown in Brazil or in the efficacy of the prevailing government administration's measures.

Conclusion: The study identified a lack of consensus among participants concerning lockdown as a practice. Issues such as disbelief in the pandemic's seriousness, denialism, and economic insecurity were important in the determination of the profiles identified in the study. Denialism is believed to have been a subjective defense against the economic problems resulting from social control measures and the lack of adequate social policies to deal with the pandemic. It was also highlighted that political polarization and the lack of central coordination during social distancing are crucial aspects. The variation in results in different locations highlights the diversity of the Brazilian scenario. By analyzing Brazilians' opinions about the lockdown, considering individual characteristics, the study seeks insights to face the pandemic and prepare for future crises, contributing to more effective public health strategies.

Keywords: COVID-19; denialism; economic insecurity; pandemics; resistance to lockdown.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptions and beliefs from Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. Questions:q01 - The financial harm from lockdown can be resolved later. It’s necessary to save lives; q02- Lockdown is not possible because Brazil lacks an adequate emergency financial relief; q03 - The economy will not improve unless the pandemic is controlled; q04 - The harm to the economy from a lockdown would be irreparable; q05 - People should not be prevented from coming and going under any circumstances during the pandemic; q06 - We could solve everything with prophylactic treatment (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine…); q07 - I believe that lockdown will help relieve the overload on health services; q08 - Herd immunity would be the best solution. Everyone that catches COVID would become immune, and the disease would stop spreading; q09 - I think everyone’s fate is sealed: whoever dies from COVID is bound to die anyway; q10 - I do not believe the pandemic is as serious as the press claims; q11 - I believe that I have taken effective measures to contain the pandemic; q12 - I believe other people have taken effective measures to contain the pandemic; q13 - I believe that the government has taken effective measures to contain the pandemic.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Fear of impact in the health and jobs during pandemics.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Reasons why lockdown could be a bother in life.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Profiles of the two Clusters. The principal characteristics in each of the Clusters were listed to understand their profiles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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