Second wave of dreaded coronavirus pandemic is greatest fear of Russians, according to study of mass media & social networks

What keeps Russians awake at night? A new study has revealed that it's the fallout from a second wave of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, which has overtaken work and money problems as the primary thing which most scares people.

Every quarter, the Public Relations Development Company (CROS) analyses Russia's mass media and social networks to create a ‘National Anxiety Index’. The CROS claims that studying the media is a better way into the “gray zone” of citizens than regular opinion polls, which are not finely tuned to identify personal anxieties.

After analyzing the third quarter of 2020, researchers discovered that a future second wave of coronavirus is by far the most prominent fear in the country. Behind Covid-19, Russian citizens noted particular concern about the country's involvement in the crisis in Belarus, as well as layoffs and unemployment.

Also featured on the list were environmental pollution, bank fraud, the devaluation of the ruble, and vaccination against Covid-19, amongst others.

Just 12 months ago, the list of worries looked much different, with natural disasters topping the table, ahead of the arbitrariness of law enforcement officers during Moscow protests, and the fear of flying.

According to political analyst Alexey Makarkin, speaking to Moscow daily Kommersant, anxieties have shifted away from fears of suffering from Covid-19, and toward the potential economic collateral damage of a second wave.

“If at the beginning of the pandemic, the main fears were medical, now socio-economic fears have come to the fore,” he explained. “The decrease in the level of medical fears was caused by the feeling that the majority of people will recover easily, the absence of the dead and seriously ill in the inner circle.”

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