Canadians want vaccines at home to be completed before country shares doses: poll

OTTAWA – The majority of Canadians believe we should pause sharing vaccines with other countries until immunizations are taken care of here at home.

A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute shows that over 70 per cent of Canadians are not happy with giving away any shots when people here are still either unprotected or partially vaccinated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently revealed we would donate 13 million doses of surplus covid shots to other countries while pledging funds to buy 87 million more.

READ MORE: Canada donating 13M surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to poor countries

The data finds more people are comfortable pledging future shots to other countries than sharing our current stock.

People between the ages of 18 and 34 are slightly more inclined to say the time has come to pivot to sharing vaccine with the developing world, but just one-quarter are of this opinion.

About half of those people polled say the federal government has done a good job of securing vaccines for Canadians–but the survey shows political stripes impact how people view vaccine procurement.

Seven-in-10 conservative-leaning people said the feds are not doing a good job of getting vaccines.

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Vaccine hesitancy remains highest in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with one in five people in those provinces saying they are either unwilling or unsure of getting vaccinated.

Manitoba and Ontario are the least satisfied with second-dose rollout, but overall half of Canadians say second-dose rollout is going as well as can be expected.

A little over a quarter said it is taking too long.