Vaccine progress is rolling along in the United States, as since early March more than 2 million shots a day have been issued to American citizens. That means, as of March 13 (the most recent update) roughly 12 percent of the U.S. adult population had been fully vaccinated again COVID-19, with a larger share about halfway there with a first dose already distributed.
That, according to the CDC, means herd immunity is still some ways off, as experts estimate that roughly 70 to 85 percent of the country needs to be immunized before herd immunity goes into effect and stops the virus from spreading. It is, however, an upgrade from the early days of vaccine distribution in December and January when logistical confusion and administrative errors slowed the diffusion of the vaccine into patient populations.
“We’ve turned a corner,” says Claire Hannan, head of the Association of Immunization Managers. “We’re just getting vaccines out, day in and day out, and we’re making progress.”
That progress, it seems, is beginning to break through consumer reluctance about getting that vaccine. As of the most recent PYMNTS consumer survey, people are warming up to the vaccine now that there are three effective ones in circulation: 55 percent of consumers trust the vaccines and plan to get one, versus 17 percent of consumers who don’t and won’t be. And marked improvement over the December result, when the population was still far more evenly divided between getting and not getting a vaccine, with both positions claiming about a third of the population (and the unsures making up the remaining third).
And that growing enthusiasm corresponds to the simple reality that consumers in some regards really miss being out in the world. Mainly, it seems, for fun purposes for the vast majority — while getting out to work manages to bottom out the list of reasons people are excited to make their grand re-entrance into the physical world.
Leisure, including seeing friends, traveling and going to events, tops out that list with 65 percent of all consumers who are looking forward to going back out into the physical world cite seeing friends and family again, for example, and 60 percent say they want to be able to travel within the U.S. again. We found that 59 percent want to participate in leisure activities, like playing sports, seeing movies and attending concerts and other events.
Vaccines are critical to those plans, as the data demonstrates: 66 percent of U.S. consumers are either vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated. Twenty-eight percent of the adult population have already received at least one vaccination shot, and 53 percent are either vaccinated or likely to get vaccinated when they become eligible. Of those asked, 56 percent of consumers reported vaccines were critical to their getting back out there, while 58 percent reported they would need to see a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases.
There are, however, still skeptics out there holding off on vaccination. That is observable in the data, and anecdotal in news reports of the persistence of vaccine reticence.
“I’m apprehensive to get the vaccine,” Ashley Thornton told the Chicago Sun Times. She’s had bad experiences in the past, and doesn’t trust the speed at which this vaccine has rolled out.
“I just think it hasn’t been out long enough for the proper tests and protocols to be done before I inject that into my body,” she said.
And vaccine skeptics are visible in PYMNTS data — the 17 percent of the population that still doesn’t trust the vaccine are both the group least likely to have digitally shifted their lives during the pandemic period and the group most pessimistic about the pandemic’s end, with most predicting another 414 days left to go until the pandemic period is really over and out.
The more vaccine positive, on the other hand, are also getting more optimistic about a return to a non-pandemic dominated world. The average U.S. consumer believes that the pandemic would end in 289 days if vaccines were not available and that widespread vaccinations will lead to the pandemic ending in 252 days — 37 days sooner than would otherwise be possible. This would mean being able to reenter the physical world without restrictions by January 2022.
But interestingly, the data demonstrated, even when the restriction are gone, some of the COVID-19 changes will remain in place. Eighty-three percent of consumers who have shifted to at-home work do not plan to go back to working in an office full-time when the pandemic is done. Eighty percent of consumers who purchase clothing, accessories, games, hobbies and books do so both online and in person. Twenty-six percent of consumers report using aggregators like Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash more now than they did before the pandemic began and 80 percent of them say they intend to keep using aggregators at least as often as they do now even after the pandemic has subsided.
Consumers can and will get back out there, particularly to see the people they care for. But they won’t come out quite the same way — according to the data, they are ready to get back out there in a digitally-moderated way from here on out.
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