A national polling institute and medical association found that Canadians’ trust in health news is declining.
According to a recent study, “2025 Health and Media Annual Tracking Survey” by Abacus Data and the Canadian Medical Association, fewer Canadians trust Canadian media’s reporting on health-related news than the previous year.
The survey asked 3,727 Canadians in both English and French between Nov. 12 to 19, 2024, their thoughts on “misinformation” and their level of trust in scientific papers and Canadian media organizations to report accurately on health news.
The poll sample was statistically weighted from the most recent census data to represent Canada’s population. The study said a comparable probability sample of the same size reports a margin of error of no greater than 1.96% 19 times out of 20.
When asked how Canadians react to news stories on the safety of a new vaccine, only 12% reported that they fully trust the media. Nearly one-third, 31%, said they “generally believe” the media when it comes to vaccine safety, while 21% said they take that news “with a grain of salt.”
This marks a six-point drop in Canadians’ trust in the media on vaccine safety from the previous year. The decrease in Canadians’ perception of the media’s ability to report accurately on the safety of a new vaccine also marks the largest decline in trust among health news topics since 2024.
Another area where Canadians reported having less trust in the media was news reports about the health impacts caused by environmental factors such as pollution and water quality.
According to the study, over one in five Canadians, 22%, said they are skeptical about media reports on health and the environment. At the same time, 15% of Canadians reported fully trusting health news about environmental impacts.
This marks a five-point decrease in trust in media reports on the impact of environmental factors on health compared to the 2024 report.
Only 11% said they always trust claims based on scientific studies, while 47% reported they usually trust them but like to consider other sources of information.
Nearly a tenth of Canadians reported being skeptical about scientific studies and prefer other forms of proof, while 3% said they don’t trust scientific evidence “at all.”
Despite an average decrease in trust of 4.86% among the various areas of health news report, there was a two-point increase in approval ratings for the quality of work that Canadian news organizations do in several places.
Less than half of respondents, 45%, said that Canada’s news organizations are doing well at covering all important healthcare stories. In terms of providing accurate information about health topics, 47% said they thought that overall the media was doing a good job.
Just over half of respondents said Canadian outlets do a good job at keeping the public informed during health crises and emergencies, with 54% giving their approval.
Quebecers were more likely than the rest of Canadians to say that the media was doing well at informing the public about health news.
Less than half of Quebecers said that news outlets do a good job of avoiding sensationalism or fear-mongering on health topics, with 46% approving. At the same time, only 36% of the rest of Canadians felt the same.
The survey showed a nine-point gap between Quebecers and the rest of Canadians who think news outlets do a good job of providing accurate information on health topics and covering all critical healthcare stories.
Quebecers and the rest of Canada were closer to agreement on media bias, however. Less than half of Quebecers and the rest of Canadians, 43% and 42% respectively, said that outlets were doing a good job presenting a balanced view without biases in their reporting.
The survey also marked an increase in the amount of people getting their news from most mainstream sources. However, it did not allow respondents to choose independent media as an option to choose from when asking Canadians what news they consume.
