Timely insights into vaccination coverage are critical for managing disease outbreaks, but traditional surveys have considerable shortcomings.  

Historically, influenza vaccination coverage among adults in the U.S. has been measured using large health surveys like the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) or the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). These surveys are conducted annually and are not timed to provide information about influenza vaccination coverage during an influenza season. Therefore, there can be significant delays from when data collection occurs to when results are available, which impedes the ability to effectively address prevention strategies when it matters most.

Additionally, these large health surveys cover a wide range of health topics and therefore do not capture depth of information useful to enhance public health policy and communication strategies to increase influenza vaccination, such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, behavioral intentions, and behaviors related to influenza and influenza vaccination.

Finally, in 2019/2020 these large national surveys did not assess COVID-19 vaccination coverage since the SARS-CoV-2 virus only emerged in late 2019 and COVID-19 vaccines became available in 2020.

NORC is using the AmeriSpeak Omnibus surveys to obtain rapid, frequent estimates of vaccination coverage.

We are using our probability-based AmeriSpeak Omnibus survey panel to collect from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Survey questions assess:

• COVID-19 and influenza vaccination status
• Intention to vaccinate and reasons why and why not
• Barriers to vaccination
• Related vaccination attitudes and beliefs
• Key demographics

We field the surveys twice a month and share the data with CDC within days. Periodically, we field additional surveys with a larger sample of AmeriSpeak panel members to provide more in-depth understandings of certain vaccination topics.