Canadians’ appetite for vaccines rose with second wave, StatsCan says

With the third wave of Covid-19 gaining momentum, new research from Statistics Canada shows that willingness to receive a vaccine against the virus rose during the second wave, while mental health declined.

The national statistical agency released a report on Friday showing that during the second wave of Covid-19 infections from November to mid-December, 80.4% of Canadians reported they were somewhat or very likely to get a vaccine. That was up from 75.5% in September.

Older Canadians were slightly more willing: 82.5% of those aged 65 and older said they would get vaccinated, compared with 75.5% of those aged 12 to 64.

StasCan also reported that the proportion of Canadians taking precautions against infection rose during the second wave, with 80.8% saying that they avoided leaving the house for non-essential reasons from November to mid-December, up from 67.0% in September.

At the same time, the share of Canadians reporting that their mental health had declined since the start of the pandemic jumped from 29.6% in September to 37.3% from November to mid-December.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.