Germany is a large, highly developed country in Europe with a population of over 83 million people. It has a strong economy, with a GDP per capita of 63,835 US dollars, and ranks highly on the Human Development Index, placing it in the top 10 countries in the world. Germany is a federal parliamentary republic, with a decentralized system of government that involves sharing power between the national government and constituent states.

Germany is the country where people inform themselves the most on Wikipedia by far! Remember the barraces? They were always on top. So, how does it reflect in their management of the crisis?

 

The plot shows a clear distinction between pageviews, COVID-19 cases, and deaths. The number of pageviews increased significantly during the early months of the pandemic and then decreased with small spikes of activity during each new wave. It is interesting to compare the number of deaths between the first and second waves of the pandemic, as it shows the effectiveness of the partial lockdown implemented on March 22, 2020.

The first two waves of COVID-19 cases in Germany were relatively low compared to the third wave. Germany implemented effective contact tracing measures during the first part of the pandemic, which may have contributed to the lower number of COVID-19 cases until the third wave. However, in 2022, there was a peak in COVID-19 cases as people became more relaxed about the virus. Despite this, there were fewer deaths during this time because 77.8% of the population in Germany had been vaccinated.

 

During the pandemic, Germany implemented a partial lockdown that required people to work from home and closed non-essential shops, but allowed people to go outside. This can be seen in the plot of mobility evolution for each category. The categories of retail and recreational, workplace, and transit station all experienced a decrease from the baseline.

While retail and recreational and transit station gradually returned to the baseline over time, the workplace category remained at a constant level below the baseline. This may be due to companies restructuring and implementing more remote work. On the other hand, the park category remained constant at the beginning of the lockdown, before a clear increase at the end, indicating that people were eager to go out more after being confined to their homes.

Based on the observations made, it appears that Germany overall managed the COVID-19 pandemic well by balancing the need to protect public health with the need to allow people some freedom during the pandemic. This may be one reason why 82% of the population in Germany trusted the government in 2020.

Italy is a European country with a population of over 58 million people. It is known for its high quality of life and education, and has a GDP per capita of 51,062 US dollars, ranking it 30th in the world by this measure. Italy is a unitary parliamentary republic, meaning that it is a centralized system of government in which power is held by the national government.

Italy was one of the hardest hit countries in Europe despite severe restrictions in mobility and above-average interest in terms of Wikipedia pageviews. What happenend?

 

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on Italy, particularly during the first wave, which resulted in many deaths. This can be seen in the plot of COVID-19 deaths. There was also a large peak in COVID-19 pageviews during the first wave, indicating that people were heavily researching the virus as it arrived. However, as time passed, interest in the virus decreased, as shown by the flattening curve. Similarly to Germany, towards the end of the period, with 86.2% of the Italian population vaccinated, people began going out more and engaging in more social activities, leading to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, as seen in the plot of COVID-19 cases.

 

In response to the severe impact of COVID-19, the Italian government implemented a full lockdown on March 11, 2020, requiring people to stay inside except for medical reasons or essential work. This led to a significant decrease in mobility in various places, including transit stations, parks, workplaces, retail and recreational areas. There was also a decrease in mobility at grocery stores and pharmacies, possibly due to people being scared of getting infected.

On the other hand, there was an increase in residential mobility, which may have been caused by the full lockdown forcing people to stay at home. On May 4, phase 2 of the lockdown began, which included a relaxation of mobility restrictions in Italy and a sharp increase in mobility in parks and transit stations. The large spike in park mobility occurred on Italy's national day, leading to people celebrating outdoors. Despite the end of the lockdown, there was no return to normal levels of mobility in parks and workplaces.

Based on the observations made, it appears that despite the implementation of strong restrictions by the government, Italy still experienced high rates of COVID-19 deaths. This may be one reason why only 52% of the population in Italy trusts the government.

Thaïland is an Asian country with a population of over 69 million people. While it is technically a constitutional monarchy, the military holds significant power in the country. Thaïland has a newly industrialized economy that relies on tourism, manufacturing, and agriculture, with a GDP per capita of 21,114 US dollars. This places it 74th in the world by this measure.

Thaïland was hit very late in comparison to other countries, on top of that they informed themselves strongly in the early days of the pandemic. Despite this, as they got hit (hard), their interest was as low as it gets and never went up.

 

During the full lockdown in European countries, Thaïland experienced a decrease in tourist traffic, which helped to preserve low rates of COVID-19 spread in the country. On April 4, Thaïland implemented a lockdown on its borders. Although the country was largely spared from the COVID-19 pandemic at this point, there was still significant interest in the virus, as shown by the number of pageviews.

Unlike Germany and Italy, the interest in COVID-19 remained high for a longer period of time in Thaïland until the country was hit by its first wave of the pandemic. This suggests that there may be a general curiosity about COVID-19 that persists until the virus begins to spread in a particular country, and then decreases once it is more widely experienced. The relationship between COVID-19 cases and deaths in Thaïland appears to be different from the one observed in Germany and Italy.

 

Even though Thaïland was not as severely impacted by COVID-19 in 2020 as other countries, the government implemented measures such as a general curfew from 10pm to 4am and a lockdown in densely populated regions. This likely contributed to the decrease in mobility seen in all categories except residential, which began to return to normal levels at the end of the curfew on June 15, 2020. Mobility at grocery stores and pharmacies also returned to baseline levels around May 2020, while transit station mobility remained below baseline.

Based on the observations made, it appears that even though Thaïland had relatively low numbers of COVID-19 cases initially, the government implemented measures such as a curfew which may have affected the trust of the population in their government.