The survey, conducted by Stasis on October 2020, indicates that nearly half of Iranians are dissatisfied with how the government has responded to the spread of the novel coronavirus (forty-eight percent). The poll also found that seventy-two percent of Iranians believe that the country should go into quarantine because of this crisis.

To view the results of this poll in an interactive map, click the link. This is a platform details the results of each question by gender, age group, location, and education in the bar chart.

Assessment of Iranian Officials’ Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic and the Level of Trust

According to the poll, 34% of respondents recorded that they “completely disapprove” and 14% percent “somewhat disapprove” of the way that public officials are managing the coronavirus pandemic. The total level of disapproval among those polled is 48%. However,44% percent of respondents claimed that they do approve the way that public officials are handling the crisis. Only 14% of respondents “completely approve” where 31% of respondents only “somewhat approve.”

Question: As you know, our country has been dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic for a few months. Generally speaking, do you approve or disapprove of how public officials are handling their job?

Respondents in urban areas and those who have a university education are most likely to say that they are disapprove of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Fifty-two percent (52%) of those who live in urban areas, and 60% of those who have a university degree reported disapproval. Among respondents in rural areas and respondents without a university degree, the level of disapproval is 37% and 43% respectively.

In this study, respondents were also asked to report on the extent of their confidence in public officials to resolve the issue. About 20% said that they “completely trust” and another 35% percent claimed that they “somewhat trust” public officials to resolve the public health crisis. On the other side, those who “somewhat distrust” or “do not trust at all” are 25% and 14% of respondents, respectively.

Question: To what extent do you trust or distrust the officials to resolve this (coronavirus pandemic) issue?

Notably, the level of complete distrust among those respondents who have a university degree is higher than in any other group, almost 31%.

Public Opinion View regarding Quarantine

A significant majority Iranians believe that the country should go into quarantine because of this pandemic (72%).

Question: One idea is that the government should close schools, government offices, public places and the country should go into quarantine. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?

Respondents residing in urban areas were more slightly likely to answer affirmatively to this question (74%), compared to the 66% percent of people in rural areas who support a quarantine measure.

Interestingly, respondents in the 30 to 44 age group were less likely than any other age group to say that the country should go to quarantine.

Corona Vaccine, European, American, Chinees or Russian?

The respondents were asked if, hypothetically, organizations from European countries, USA, China, or Russia were to produce and release a coronavirus vaccine, which of these national organizations they would prefer to use. Fifteen percent (15%) say that they would prefer to use a vaccine produced by European organizations, followed by American, Russian, and Chinese with 13%, 8% and 4%, respectively.

Question: These days we are hearing a lot in the news about organizations working to find a cure and vaccine for Coronavirus. Some organizations are from European countries, some are American, Chinese and Russian. If these organizations do finally produce and release a vaccine, which would you prefer to use?

Male more than female respondents would prefer a vaccine produced by European and American organizations. Moreover, respondents between the ages of 18 to 29 and 30 to 44 were more likely to hold this preference compared to older people. There is a similar trend among respondents living in urban areas compared to those who live in rural areas and respondents with a university degree versus those who do not have a university degree.

Following the News about the Coronavirus Pandemic

The poll found that most Iranians are following coronavirus-related news, more than any other topics Stasis has analyzed in the past few years. Seventy-four percent of Iranians say they follow this sort of news “a great deal” or “somewhat.”

Question: These days we often read or hear about the coronavirus pandemic in the news; in general, how much do you follow this sort of news?

IRIB (National TV and radio) is the main source of coronavirus-related news. Almost 75% say that the IRIB is one of their main news sources, following by the internet and social media (57%), word of mouth (12%), and satellite channels (11%).

IRIB is less popular among those respondents between the ages 18 to 29 and is more popular among those who are 60 and older. Among those who are in the age group between 18 to 29, the internet and social media have an almost 90% penetration rate. Moreover, there is a clear preference of internet and social media sources over IRIB among respondents living in urban areas and for those who have a university degree.

Remarks

The results of this poll have been interactively visualized in the link below:

http://www.surveycenter.io/corona/202010/en/

This is an interactive platform detailing the results of every question, distinguished by gender, age group, location, and education in a bar chart.

For each question, there is a bubble chart (consisting of many small circles), detailing the respondents’ information. Each circle represents a single respondent and by clicking on it, you can find the complete answer set for that particular respondent. The color coding is consistent between the bubble chart and bar chart for easy comparison.

Methodology

• Telephone interviews were conducted from October 22-28, 2020, with a random sample of 1,297 Iranians aged 18 and older living in Iran. Native Farsi speakers conducted the interviews during daylight hours.
• The proportional two-stage sample includes respondents from every province. Provinces have been samples based on their population.
• Based on the sample, there is a 95 percent confidence that the margin of sampling error is between ± 2.7 and ± 2.9 percentage points, depending on the number of respondents for each question.
• Results are weighted by gender, age, and location (urban vs. rural areas) based on the Iranian national census of 2016 and 2018 statistical yearbook.
• Rates of respondent candor and reliability were appraised by experienced interviewers. 42 persons found to be lacking in these areas were removed from the sample.
• This poll was conducted for Iranwire. Arash Ghafouri, an Iranian pollster, has led the survey team at Stasis.