Shortages: Medical supplies

The COVID-19 pandemic has made having an ample stock of medical supplies and tests more important than ever. But coronavirus has also contributed to the supply chain crisis that has made it harder for many members of the global public to access these much-needed items.

New YouGov data shows the extent to which these medical shortages have impacted the public in 17 different international markets. While 13% of respondents indicated they had been impacted by insufficient supplies and tests, there is significant variety between the nations in our study. The Indonesian (28% - online sample) and Indian (26% - national urban sample) public have been most affected, followed by people in Mexico (22%), the UAE (22%) and China (16%). Among all countries in the list, it appears that the public in the APAC region have been – with some exceptions such as Hong Kong (8%) and Australia (11%) – more likely to be affected by a lack of supplies and testing equipment over the past three months.

European consumers (again, with exceptions: 13% of Spaniards and 12% of Italian consumers report being impacted by shortages) are less likely to say they’ve been affected. While one in ten Britons (10%) and Polish respondents (9%) say it’s been harder to get supplies and tests of late, half as many French (5%) and Danish (5%) respondents say the same. And while there have been reports of a shortage of “an array” of US medical supplies, American consumers are in a similar bracket: just 9% say they’ve been affected by a lack of supplies or tests.

Methodology

The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between markets. All interviews were conducted online in October 2021. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.

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