More than half of Canadians think the wait for a COVID-19 vaccine is 'too long,' survey finds

A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute found that 60 per cent of Canadians will get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available to them, while more than half of respondents say that wait to get inoculated is “too long.”

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

The online survey was conducted from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10 with 1,580 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. When comparing the results from this poll to surveys in the past, there was been a signifiant increase in the number of respondents who said they would get the vaccine as soon as possible, jumping up 21 percentage points since September 2020.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

The number of people who said they would not get the vaccination has stayed relatively consistent since July. Provincially, Alberta and Saskatchewan have the highest percentage of people who do not want to be vaccinated, at 20 per cent and 19 per cent of respondents respectively.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

In terms of how Canadians want to see the vaccine distributed, respondents who are willing to get vaccinated at a number of locations, mostly a doctor’s office or walk-in clinic, a pharmacy or a mobile vaccination site.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

The federal government has stated that by September, everyone who wants to receive a COVID-19 vaccine should have access to one. According to the Angus Reid Institute poll, most Canadians expect to receive a vaccine within four to six months, including almost half of respondents who are 65 years-old or older.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

People in Alberta and Manitoba are most likely to think that it will take 10 months or longer to be vaccinated. In both provinces, most respondents believe it will take seven to nine months until a COVID-19 vaccine is available to them.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

Overall, more than half of respondents in the poll believe that the wait to be offered a COVID-19 vaccine is “too long,” going up to 63 per cent for men age 55 or older.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that he is “frustrated” with delays in COVID-19 vaccine distribution, while provinces, including Ontario, said the federal government needs to increase its procurement and allocation of vaccines to limit these delays.

Angus Reid Institute
Angus Reid Institute

Angus Reid Institute found that 42 per cent of respondents believe their province is doing a good or very good job distributing vaccines, compared to the 39 per cent believe their provincial officials are doing a bad of very bad job.

People in Quebec were most positive about their COVID-19 vaccine distribution to date, while more than half of respondents in Ontario and Manitoba indicating their provincial government are doing a bad or very bad job.

“In some cases, established impressions about the performance of the provincial government in handling the pandemic may be colouring perceptions about vaccine distribution,” the Angus Reid Institute reads.

The company highlighted that last, in a survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute between Nov. 24 and Nov. 30, 2020, only 31 per cent of respondents in Manitoba and 41 per cent of Albertans said their provincial government was doing a “good job” handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontario has also recently come under fire for halting vaccine injections over the Christmas holiday and continues to see significant COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care homes, including the Tendercare Living Centre in Scarborough and St. George Care Community.

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