This fall in interest lasted for a month before it began to rise as more people felt comfortable attending appointments or had symptoms they could no longer ignore. Having said that, search interest in local doctors is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

Clearly not everyone is feeling comfortable heading back to the doctors just yet, so we decided to get some specific data on the issue.

Using Brandwatch Qriously, we surveyed 4,092 adults from eight countries to ask them how they felt about doing a range of activities. Among them was going to the doctor.

While more people found going to the doctor safe than any other activity we listed, it still leaves 60% who find the idea of going unsafe. That’s a lot of people not getting checked up, prescribed medication, or being referred to specialists. In other words, it’s a significant health issue with no clear solution in the near future.

One option is for doctors to do virtual or remote appointments.

In our survey, we also asked people how comfortable they would feel about remote doctors appointments on a scale of one to five, one being ‘not at all’ and five being ‘very’. Here’s what they told us.

It’s a mixed bag. A quarter of respondents said they wouldn’t be comfortable with a remote/virtual doctor’s appointment at all. That’s a significant amount, but it still leaves 75% feeling comfortable to some degree. 21% said they’d be very comfortable.

The numbers aren’t too dire, but they are worrisome. So much hesitation could lead to many missing out on much-needed treatments. Nevertheless, remote appointments are a step in the right direction and will see patients getting essential advice and support from a safe distance.

Festivals from afar

Much of the world has been deprived of live music for the last few months and, for many, it’ll be a while yet till venues open for business again.

Even when they do reopen, it’s unlikely that patrons will come flocking back without hesitation. In a recent bulletin, we reported that 38% of consumers surveyed said they’d feel ‘not at all safe’ attending a concert when government lockdown measures are lifted.

Meanwhile, interest in online or virtual concerts has started to die off. The chart below shows Google searches and original social media posts around online concerts. For both metrics, the day with the highest volume has a score of 100, while the other days are indexed against it.

The biggest spike in interest (in both searches and original social posts) was in mid-April when K-pop group BTS shared their concerts online in place of shows that were cancelled. As with pretty much anything BTS is involved with, there was a big, positive reaction from their fans.

But since then, virtual concerts haven’t quite captured the attention or imagination of the people. Now that we’re heading into festival season, music lovers are faced with a string of cancellations in their diaries, from big names like Coachella through to smaller, more specialist events. How will the gap be filled?

Nothing’s going to beat the feeling of dancing and singing along with a crowd of strangers to your favorite artist, but that doesn’t mean festival season can’t be celebrated. While virtual events are falling out of favor, music lovers are transforming their homes and gardens into mini-festival spaces instead.

This weekend, the UK’s famous Glastonbury festival would have welcomed 135,000 people. The event itself is cancelled, but that hasn’t stopped fans creating their own versions.

The parts of festivals people decide to recreate at home (props, activities, imagery) can give organizers a great insight into what people love most about their events. These are the elements that can be dialed up in 2021.

Get more in-depth data

Don’t miss out on our huge report looking at consumers and how their behavior has changed due to Covid-19.

Head here to find out more and get signed up.

Thanks for reading

That’s it from us this week. Have a great weekend. If you’d like to get our bulletins each day, sign up here.

Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team