People in the UK were more likely to increase their contact with others as more of their local population became vaccinated, rather than when they themselves got the vaccine, according to research published today by a research team led by Oxford academics.
The researchers used data from the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey – a large, community-based survey of people from randomly selected households across the UK – to evaluate changes in people’s behaviours in response to three factors:
- getting vaccinated themselves
- their vulnerable household members becoming vaccinated
- increasing vaccination rates in the wider population
Behaviours studied included the probability of physical or socially-distanced contact with people outside the home, visits to others’ homes or of others to one’s own home, work location, and use of public transport.
In a research paper published as a preprint (and therefore not yet peer-reviewed), the researchers reported that, overall, people’s social behaviours did not change when they themselves became vaccinated. There was also little behavioural change following vaccination of the last vulnerable person in a household, expect for a small increase in social contact with under 18s.
In contrast, behaviours did appear to be influenced by the vaccination rate in the wider population, in that people increased their contact with others as vaccination rates rose. The same effect was observed in the four nations of the UK, and was therefore likely to be unaffected by local coronavirus policy measures.
The research team observed a surge in physical contacts when the first phase of the vaccination programme (to give a first dose to those most at risk) was complete. After that, social contact, home visits, and working outside the home increased steadily as vaccination rates in the population increased. This was the case even after the researchers took into account factors such as localised public health messaging and restrictions.
They concluded that the changes they saw in people’s behaviour was related to population level vaccination rather than being a response to either policy changes or to people themselves becoming vaccinated.