Just 41 per cent of Canadians who aren’t vaccinated, but intend to be, are comfortable with receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to a recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute.
The survey’s findings show that while urgency to be inoculated against COVID-19 climbs again to an all time high, critical doubts about one of the main brands that make up this country’s vaccine program could result in Canadians opting not to be vaccinated at all if a dose of AstraZeneca were the only option.
Nearly one-quarter (23 per cent) of those who haven’t yet received a vaccine but intend to say they would reject a dose from AstraZeneca outright if that is the brand being administered to them.
Levels of discomfort increase considerably among women over the age of 34 – two in five say they are “extremely uncomfortable” with the idea of receiving the AstraZeneca dose, according to the Angus Reid survey.
Against the backdrop of these doubts, public health officials and politicians must also battle skepticism over another critical aspect of COVID-19 related data: the very number of people who have been infected. About one-in-five people in Canada believe the federal government has been inflating COVID-19 statistics, while fewer than a third think the official data is accurate (32 per cent).
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