Social Impact of COVID-19 Survey February 2021: Vaccination Attitudes and Holiday Expectations

The fifth round of the Social Impact of COVID-19 Survey was undertaken to measure the impact COVID-19 has had on Irish society in February 2021. This survey was carried out between Tuesday, 9^th February and Monday, 15^th February and was based on a sample of 5,247 persons aged 18 years and over. The survey utilised an online electronic questionnaire to produce a final achieved sample size of 1,621 individuals.

The topics covered in the survey included well-being, the impact of school closures, COVID-19 vaccination and holiday plans for 2021.  Analysis is provided across key personal and household demographic characteristics, reflecting how COVID-19 has impacted different people in different ways.  This publication focuses on the COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and expectations around international travel and holiday intentions during 2021.  On Thursday, 25th February, the CSO published results from this survey that focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on well-being and on Friday, 26th February, results related to the impact of school closures were published.

Vaccination Attitudes

• Almost nine in ten (87.0%) respondents who had not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine said they would get vaccinated next week if possible.
• Male respondents were more likely to report that they would take the vaccine next week (92.5% compared with 81.6% of female respondents).
• Older respondents, those aged 70 years and over, were mostly likely (96.1%) to report that they would take the vaccine next week and respondents aged 35-44 were least likely (76.7%).
• Of respondents who had not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine 5.4% said they Do not want to get the vaccine.
• Female respondents were four times more likely to say they Do not want to get the vaccine compared with male respondents (8.7% versus 2.1%).
• Two in three (66.2%) respondents who Do not want to get the vaccine said they are Worried about long-term side effects.
• One in five (20.5%) respondents who Do not want to get the vaccine believe that the vaccine would not protect them from COVID-19 while more than one in six (17.3%) reported they are Worried about short-term side effects.
• Of respondents not yet vaccinated the most reported concern was having a long wait before getting vaccinated with 46.3% saying that they were Very or Extremely concerned about this aspect.
• The next biggest concern was the length of time the vaccine will protect from the COVID-19 virus where approximately one in five respondents (21.3%), who are vaccinated or want to get vaccinated, were Very or Extremely concerned about this, followed by the effectiveness of the vaccine against different strains of the virus (20.7%).  
• Female respondents were more likely to report being Very or Extremely concerned about all aspects of the vaccine compared with male respondents.  For example, almost one in four (24.4%) female respondents were Very or Extremely concerned about different levels of effectiveness between vaccines compared with 13.9% of male respondents.

International Travel and Holiday Intentions for 2021

• In November 2020, more than one in two (50.6%) respondents anticipated their next international flight would be Sometime in 2021. In February 2021, this expectation was reported by less than one in six (15.8%) respondents
• In February 2021, 19.3% of male respondents expected their next international flight to be Sometime in 2021 compared with 12.4% of female respondents
• Two in five (40.6%) respondents with a low compliance with current government advice and guidelines regarding COVID-19 reported they expect to travel Sometime in 2021, compared with one in five (20.3%) with medium compliance and over one in eight (13.1%) with high compliance. 
• More respondents (39.4%) reported they intend to Take a holiday in the Republic of Ireland of at least 1 week’s duration in 2021 compared with the proportion of respondents that said they took such a holiday in a typical year prior to the onset of COVID-19 (30.9%).
• Almost three in four (73.3%) respondents reported that, in a typical year prior to the onset of COVID-19, they would take a holiday overseas (including short breaks). Less than one in six (15.9%) respondents reported that they intend to holiday overseas in 2021
• Analysis by age shows that respondents aged 35-44 were most likely (45.3%) to report that they intend to Take a holiday in the Republic of Ireland (of at least one week’s duration) and were also the most likely (17.4%) to report they intend to Take a holiday overseas (of at least one week’s duration) in 2021.

The results presented in this publication have been weighted to best reflect the population.  Due to time and resource constraints, there were limitations on the sample size and selection methodology.  Consequently, caution must be exercised when making inferences to the entire population from these results.  Nonetheless, this data provides a valuable insight into the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of many people in Ireland.  For further details on the survey methodology, see Background Notes.