27 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE mark’s rapid and robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Denmark became one of the first countries to remove all COVID-19 restrictions. Despite this remarkable achievement, the country’s approach to the pandemic came with costs, which highlight some of the issues related to high levels of institutional trust. Benefits The Danish government was one of the first to announce major lockdown measures, on March 13, 2020 (Stephensen & Hansen, 2020). During the first two weeks, the lockdown measures included sending home all noncritical public sector employees to quarantine; restricting visits to nursing homes and hospitals; and shutting down schools, universities, gyms, libraries, and daycare for at least two weeks. In the third week, the government closed shopping centers and close-contact businesses (such as hairdressers, cafes, and nightclubs) and made it illegal for more than 10 people to gather in public (Mansø et al., 2020). Violation of these restrictions was associated with a fine of 1500 kr (around $140). With certain exceptions, Denmark also closed its borders from March to April of 2020 (Møller, 2020). Unlike countries such as the United States, Denmark’s temporary but major lockdown measures were not met with significant backlash (Adler-Nissen et al., 2021). Indeed, this acceptance can be attributed to the astonishing fact that more than 90% of Danes had moderate to high levels of trust in their national health authorities during the outbreak of the virus (Behsudi, 2020). Such high levels of institutional trust were again crucial when vaccines became available in the country, and most Danes became vaccinated. Trust is a crucial component of vaccination compliance. Research on vaccine hesitancy shows that lack of trust in authorities, such as government officials, local leaders, and health experts, is one of the main reasons people refuse to get vaccinated (Lindholt et al., 2021). This refusal was uncommon in Denmark. By the fall of 2021, 86% of all eligible citizens received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 95% of all people ages 50 and older were fully vaccinated (Petersen & Bor, 2021). Additionally, during the height of the pandemic, over 60% of adults were tested for COVID-19 each week (Behsudi, 2022). Due to their successful lockdown measures and high rates of vaccination, Denmark became the first country in the European Union to lift all COVID-19 restrictions (Mclean et al., 2022). On September 10, 2021, the government announced that the COVID-19 pandemic would no longer be categorized as a “critical threat” to Danish society (Ministry of Interior and Health, 2021). At the time, the country could boast an infection rate of 89 cases per million people and a death rate of 0.5 per million people. In comparison, the United States at the time had an infection rate of 440 cases per million people and a death rate of 5 per million people (Ritchie et al., 2020). After the government lifted all coronavirus restrictions, there was an uptick in daily infections. In response, the government reinstalled vaccine and immunity passports to enter crowded venues as well as face mask requirements. There was no backlash against these newer measures; over 90% of Danes supported these measures (Adler-Nissen et al., 2021). Social trust was important in this pandemic mitigation context because it allowed for behavioral changes without the pressure of strict laws. Without the need to enforce very strong measures due to high levels of voluntary compliance, the country saved resources, which permitted a focus on other mitigation efforts such as vaccine rollout. Such high levels of trust in others may be a reason why most Danes dealt with the pandemic calmly, trusting that their institutions and other people would fulfill their responsibilities in mitigation efforts (Tingaard, 2020). In fact, when it comes to institutional trust, there is evidence that Denmark is the only country in the European Union where trust in the national government actually increased during the pandemic (Wagemaker, 2021). One reason for such high levels of trust may be the compromise-oriented and depolarized political system. The Danish government created large-scale economic legislation in response to the pandemic. In April of 2020, Parliament uniformly passed several economic relief packages aimed at aiding businesses and citizens, including compensation for lost revenue, income, wages, and fixed costs (Boesen, 2020). For their wage compensation scheme, the state was slated to cover 75% of workers’ salaries, with companies covering the remaining 25%. These comprehensive economic aid packages were supported by all parliamentary parties, which may partially explain why 80% of Danes initially felt that their leaders were united in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic (Petersen & Bor, 2021). Aside from compliance with pandemic mitigation efforts, trust may have played a role in the country’s inoculation against conspiracy theories. Denmark did not experience a rise in conspiratorial beliefs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Researchers have found that although conspiracy theories were present in Danish social media, specifically Facebook, their prevalence and influence were quite limited. They found this to be true even for Facebook pages and
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