Covid-19: volunteers over 50 ready to be vaccinated

Volunteers from associations ready to be vaccinated. Credit: scyther5

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The Research & Solidarity association mobilized its troops to carry out an emergency study between January 14 and 20, about the vaccination of volunteers aged 50 to 74 in social associations. The objective was to better understand the behavior of volunteers and their decision with regard to the vaccine, and more particularly to know if vaccination “can be a lever for returning to the field and to action” indicates Recherches & Solidarités .

A pending volunteer activity

Indeed, the association had already observed social consequences on the activity of associations since the start of the health crisis. One of the major repercussions is the decrease in the presence of volunteers given the circulation of the virus.

Today, nearly 40% of volunteers aged 50-74 from associations working with vulnerable people are at a standstill. And 12% stopped to avoid taking risks for themselves, 10% because their leaders asked them, out of prudence, to abstain temporarily, and 17% because their association is now in the impossibility of acting.

This is a difficult situation for the volunteers themselves and for the associations to manage, at a time when the needs are increasing day by day ”, specifies the Research & Solidarity study.

A desire to be vaccinated

First important result of the investigation: 71% of social sector volunteers aged 50 to 74 said without hesitation that they were ready to be vaccinated.
Beyond that, 9% are hesitant and 15% prefer to wait a bit. Only 5% said they did not want to be vaccinated.

Note that the study estimates at around 12% the proportion of hesitant volunteers who could be added to the 71% of volunteers already convinced. Among the hesitant, some say they are ready to take the plunge “to be more serene in their voluntary activity” (4%) and even more “for the protection of members or beneficiaries of their association” (8%).

How many volunteers?

In France, there are around 20 million people aged 50 to 74 (INSEE 2020), of which 23.8% are volunteers (IFOP-France Bénévolat-Recherches & Solidarités 2019). Among these 4.85 million volunteers, 30% work in the social sector, or about 1.5 million.

The survey indicates that 61% of them are now in action, or 915,000 people, of which 71% wish to be vaccinated, which allows an estimate of 650,000 volunteers to be reached. Compared to the total population of 67 million people, the vaccination of voluntary volunteers would represent a little less than 1%.