March 2021 has arrived — the one-year mark from which our lives transformed. There remains anxiety and human lives lost at rates that have numbed most of us to the realities being faced. On Consumer Corner, we’ve debated consumer behaviors under duress, how behavior changes may last longer than we think, and worked through an entire year of adapted holidays (#Halloween, #Thanksgiving, and mask-wearing while cutting down our Christmas tree). More recently, we’ve addressed the dairy markets in light of the massive fluctuations of the 2020 marketplace. In these market conversations, there is a bright spot emerging in the potential for a return to some version of normalcy — the unprecedented development, manufacturing and distribution of a highly-effective vaccine to a virus that was only acknowledged in a significant and meaningful way a little over a year ago.
We collected and analyzed data about COVID-related perceptions and behaviors in June 2020 and shared key findings in July 2020 about U.S. households. We again collected data in January 2021 from a representative sample of 927 U.S. households to revisit the topics of personal and societal responsibility, alongside collecting data about individuals’ behavior as the pandemic-era has continued on (and on and on … so it feels). A critical difference from June 2020’s data collection effort — this time we have vaccines available, whereas back in the summer it was still a dream yet to be recognized.
What We Learned (Preliminary Analyses/Early Release):
- 4% of respondents reported they had already been fully vaccinated.
- 41% of respondents indicated, “I am not yet eligible to obtain the vaccine, but intend to do so once I am eligible.”
- 13% of respondents responded, “I am eligible to obtain the vaccine and intend to, but have not yet taken steps to do so.”
- And, 24% indicated that they do NOT intend to obtain the vaccine.
We then looked at those who stated that they have obtained or plan to obtain a vaccine by key demographics. In total, more men than women have indicated they are or intend to be vaccinated. It was also found that vaccine intentions increase in older and more educated respondents.
Vaccines may be the most powerful tool available to end the pandemic, but personal behaviors such as social distancing and masking still play a huge role in determining the path of this pandemic. We will continue to explore stated behaviors from our latest data here on Consumer Corner in the coming weeks.
ConsumerCorner.2021.Letter.08
