COVID-19 Recovery: Building Future Pandemic Preparedness and Understanding Citizen Engagement in the USA and UK

We are moving into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years on from the f irst policy measures that were implemented to contain the virus, we are searching for ‘Covid-normal’. The development of COVID-19 vaccines makes it possible now for citizens to learn to adapt to the virus. While the rollout of vaccines was the game-changer, across the G7 we see levels of public resistance both to taking the vaccination at all, and to taking up boosters. To be able to live with Covid while pursuing social and economic prosperity, the challenge is to maintain energetic and effective vaccine engagement strategies, when public interest may be moving to other issues now that the regulations around Covid are being relaxed. Our research investigates the nature of vaccine engagement strategies employed from December 2020 to February 2022. This report summarises key findings from three timely exercises: • A policy mapping of vaccine engagement strategies across the G7; • A cross-country survey of over 23,000 people in the G7 countries; and • Three large-scale survey experiments that test whether persuasive policy measures including nudges can change attitudes and intentions to take up COVID-19 vaccines and boosters For more detailed discussion of methodology, data, and results, please see the accompanying Final Report for the research project.