A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute reveals that over half of Canadians who have received just one or two doses of the COVID vaccine are not willing to get a booster.
According to the survey, 57% of eligible Canadians who have received one or two doses say they will not get a booster when they’re next eligible, while 26% say they’re unsure, and just 17% say they’re willing.
Conversely (and perhaps unsurprising), 93% of those who’ve received four doses say they’re willing to line up to get the fifth vaccine, while 67% of those who’ve received a single booster also say they’re willing to do so.
Among the vaccinated, those over 55 are the most likely to say they’re willing to get another booster shot when they’re next eligible.
For males and females over the age of 55, 73% and 81% respectively say they’ll roll up their sleeves. For the vaccinated between 18 and 34, 39% of men and 57% of women say they’re willing to get a booster shot when eligible. For the vaccinated between 35 to 54, 45% of men and 60% of women say they’re willing to get a booster shot when eligible.
More dramatically, however, the split between the unvaccinated and the double boosted couldn’t be starker regarding their opinions on annual booster shots.
When answering the prompt, “I’m willing to get a booster each year, for as long as it is recommended,” 98% of those that haven’t received a vaccine say they are unwilling to get a vaccine or booster, regardless of what health officials say — the remaining two per cent don’t even agree, they just won’t say. Moreover, of those who’ve received one or two doses, a majority (64%) also say they wouldn’t get an annual booster.
On the other hand, 95% of those who have received four doses say they’ll line up for annual boosters, and 75% of those who’ve received three doses say they’ll do the same.
Overall, driven mainly by the age of respondents, the number of respondents in each category, and the fact that over half of the eligible population in Canada has received a booster jab, 62% of respondents (3-in-5) say they’re willing to get an annual booster.
However, while each category is illuminating regarding opinion by vaccination status, overall conclusions appear skewed in one direction.
For instance, 20% of the respondents to the last prompt were quadruple vaccinated, despite the quadruple vaccinated making up just 9.05% of the total population, according to Health Canada. At the same time, only 8.1% of the respondents were unvaccinated, despite the unvaccinated making up 15% of the total population.
Given that COVID vaccines were just made available for 6-month-old babies and practically everyone is eligible, it would be nice if the data proportionally reflected population sizes for each group.
Regardless, it’s clear that the government will have a tough time convincing the single and double jabbed to get a booster come this Fall — and they might as well abandon all hope when it comes to jabbing the unvaccinated.
