Experiences with Testing, Self-isolation and Vaccination in North East England during the COVID pandemic

Abstract

This study was based on a (population weighted) sample of some 4533 responses to a household survey conducted in March 2021 that looked at the impact of COVID-19 on residents in most of the local authorities covering the North East of England. It considered the outcomes relating to needing a COVID test, self-isolating, whether residents agreed that UK government and NHS-approved vaccines were ‘very safe’, and whether they had enough information in order to make an informed decision about whether or not to get vaccinated. Modelling these outcomes using multivariate regression produced a range of results that showed that all of the following were important: the impact of age, living in deprived areas, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, industry, occupation, economic status, changes in household income, sexual orientation, and household composition. Thus, the results showed that there are complex socioeconomic factors associated with the willingness to get a test, self-isolate, and the levels of vaccine hesitancy, such that, in future ensuring that (re-)vaccination and ‘track and trace’ programmes are successful, may need to be better nuanced by references to such factors rather than adopting programmes that mostly just rely on age as the criteria for roll-outs.