Vaccine hesitancy in Canada and the United States (2021)

This report reviews vaccine hesitancy among Indigenous Peoples, Black people, immigrant, and native-born populations in Canada and the U.S.

Overview

"In both countries, our research is showing a high level of mistrust of government and health care organizations including the manufacturers of vaccines. These findings suggest that the general public mistrusts the vaccine development process, believing that the current COVID-19 vaccines have not been thoroughly tested and thereby having unknown side effects, especially in the longer term." Other explanations given for vaccine hesitancy include:

• misinformation has caused citizens of both counties to believe in conspiracy theories
• personal preference - unsurprisingly, participants from the USA were more likely to report personal preference as their reason for not wanting a COVID-19 vaccine, linked to the strong individualism within the country
• staunchly anti-vaxx
• other - includes participants who responded with allergy or other health concerns, being afraid, religious and stem cell concerns and those who prefer other preventative measures (such as staying home)

Hesitancy among immigrants

"Immigrants in both countries are more likely to report concern about the newness of the COVID-19 vaccine and concern about the development timeline than the general population (38.1% in Canada; 30.1% in the USA). Misinformation is less prevalent (5.6% and 5.5% respectively).

Political reasoning for declining a COVID-19 vaccine is lower in both countries for the immigrant population (6.2% in the USA), however it is significantly lower in Canada (2.4%).
The anti-vaccination population (those who refuse all vaccines or prefer to rely on their immune system to fight sicknesses) is also lower among immigrants in both countries (5.5% in the USA, 7.9% in Canada).

Immigrants in Canada are more likely to show general mistrust for the COVID-19 vaccine (19%) while in the United States, 20.5% have a mistrust for the COVID-19 vaccine, lower than the general population (22.9%)."

Hesitancy among Black people

"Black people in both Canada and the USA reported far higher COVID-19 mistrust than the general populations (25.0% in Canada, 31.0% in the USA). Black people in Canada were more likely to report concerns about the newness of the vaccine and development timeline (40.0%)."

[pdf-embedder url="https://km4s.ca/wp-content/uploads/COVID-Impacts-Vaccine-hesitancy-in-Canada-and-USA-MAR2021.pdf"]