The impact of COVID-19 vaccination on human mobility: The London case

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global public health crisis, causing significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. As an early response, different lockdowns were imposed in the UK (and the world) to limit the spread of the disease. Although effective, these measures profoundly impacted mobility patterns across cities, significantly reducing the number of people commuting to work or travelling for leisure. As different governments introduced massive vaccination programs to tackle the pandemic, cities have significantly but slowly increased human mobility, enabling the resumption of travel, work, and social activities. Nevertheless, how much can this return to normal mobility patterns be attributed to vaccines? In this study, we answer this question using a statistical approach, analysing two different open urban mobility datasets to quantify the effect vaccination rollouts have had on increased human activities.