As England approaches the final stage of lockdown easing on 19th July, when most social contact will no longer be legally restricted. Our longitudinal study shows that most survey respondents continue to worry about the health impact of ending the lockdown too early.

Between the dates 20/04/2020 and 13/07/2020, we conducted a longitudinal study on FindOutNow. Weekly, we asked our panel members:

Which worries you more?

• Health impact of ending lockdown too early
• Economic impact of keeping the lockdown in place

A general decline in our panel members selecting “Health impact of ending lockdown too early” is observed. This is a decline of more than 80% in April last year to the current 68%, despite a small rise during Christmas and the new year, which coincides with the beginning of the third lockdown.

Whether ending most lockdown restrictions on 19th July is the correct decision remains to be seen. It is comforting to see that most of our panel members continue to be health conscious, which likely decreases the chances of any further lockdowns happening.

Photo by Harry Shelton on Unsplash