A a new poll under the auspices of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Iceland shows a stark contrast between the most obvious discussion about restrictions on the Icelandic coronary virus – both domestically and at the border – and how Icelanders themselves actually feel about them.
“Our most important conclusion is that despite loud voices in the media about ‘violations of our freedom’, the general public is generally satisfied with the restrictions imposed in mid-August,” the text of the study states in part. This conclusion was reached by sending a questionnaire to 500 individuals every day from 13 August to 23 August. By doing so, they hoped to see how or whether people’s views on the restrictions changed over time.
Overall, only 13% said that domestic restrictions needed to be relaxed; 24% wanted even tougher restrictions; and 63% were nice to them just the way they are. Icelanders’ views on border restrictions were similar and showed 13% wanting to relax more at border controls; 34% think they should be relaxed; and 50% want them unchanged.
When respondents were asked to choose either tougher national restrictions or tougher border restrictions, 67% voted for tougher border measures; 18% wanted tougher domestic restrictions; and 16% wanted neither.
The essence points to an interesting development during the period of daily questionnaires: those who wanted more stringent domestic restrictions went from 7% to 19%, while those who wanted stricter domestic restrictions went from 18% to 35%, while those who were satisfied with the restrictions as they went from 49% to 71%. When it comes to border restrictions, those who wanted tougher measures went from 55% to 18%; while those who wanted to relax went from 4% to 19%.
Source: The Nordic Page