A majority of Canadians have expressed concern regarding the potential side effects of a future coronavirus vaccine.
According to an Angus Reid Institute poll, 61% of Canadians indicated that they are worried about unintended side effects.
Despite their concerns, 80% of Canadians indicated that they would seek to be vaccinated. Out of those, 32% indicated that they would wait some time before seeking out the vaccine.
On the issue of mandatory vaccinations, Canadians’ opinions differed based on workplace scenarios.
Of those polled, 76% said that healthcare professionals and extended care home employees should be required to receive the vaccine.
Meanwhile, 63% of those polled said that people who work in schools should be forced to get a vaccine, while a slight majority of 52% was in favour of mandatory vaccinations for all workplaces.
The poll comes at a time when nations across the world are racing to be the first to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Liberal government has partnered with the Chinese firm CanSino Biologics – and by extension, the People’s Liberation Army – to develop a vaccine.
In May, the President of Concerned Ontario Doctors Dr. Kulvinder Gill spoke out against the partnership, saying that it was “the most counterproductive and dangerous thing [the federal government] could do.”
“The role of our governments is to build trust through transparency and accountability. If the Trudeau government wants Canadians to trust and buy into a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, partnering with the Chinese Communist Party’s military is […] the most counterproductive and dangerous thing it could do,” Gill told Thinkpol.
“[Canada] must abandon this illogical and dangerous endeavour, and instead fund vaccine trials with our allied nations who understand the critical importance of trust, ethics, safety, transparency and collaboration.”
