At least half of Canadians are concerned about outbreaks of the smallpox virus in Canada, but that concern does not come close to the anxiety people felt about COVID-19, according to a new Ipsos survey conducted exclusively by and Global News.
While cases of monkeypox continue to rise slowly in the country’s pockets, 67% of the population are confident that Canadian officials have the situation in hand, the poll suggests.
“I think people are worried about other things right now, like the rising cost of living and the conflict in Europe,” said Ipsos Vice President of Public Affairs Gregory Jack.
“I think part of that is probably because Canadians haven’t necessarily been involved with monkeypox as a major problem. In addition, they’ve seen the government act for the last two years (in response a) COVID-19 … They have a pretty good idea of what the government is capable of doing when they’re handling this kind of thing. “
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On Friday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported that the number of cases of monkeypox in the country had risen to 168. This includes 141 cases in Quebec, 21 cases in Ontario, four in Alberta and two in British Columbia.
The survey showed that 55% of respondents overall expressed concern about the spread of monkeypox in Canada and 67% indicated that they were confident that health officials would be able to contain the spread of the virus.
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Older people expressed the highest levels of concern and were more likely to follow news of outbreaks, although many may have more protection against the disease than their children or grandchildren because of the smallpox vaccine. . Canadians born in 1972 or later have not been routinely vaccinated against smallpox.
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A total of 61% of respondents aged 55 or over said they were concerned about the spread of monkeypox in Canada, compared with 56% of those aged 18 to 34 and 48% of those aged 35 to 54.
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Don Vinh, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at McGill University Health Center, says he believes older Canadians can be more cautious with the virus because they remember a time when they had to be vaccinated against smallpox. closely related virus than the world. Health Organization declared eradicated in 1980.
“These people are still marked by smallpox,” Vinh said.
“And because of the similarities between smallpox and smallpox … it may seem closer to home in the sense that (older Canadians) can understand or at least remember the potential impact that these smallpox viruses have on the populations “.
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The COVID-19 virus and the fact that older Canadians have been more susceptible to its negative results may also play a role in different attitudes among age groups when it comes to monkeypox, said Sameer Elsayed. infectious disease physician and professor at Western University.
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“Adults and the elderly need to bear the weight of COVID more than younger people. And so this experience may have led them to worry about the monkey’s smallpox and not understand who is at risk now.” said Elsayed.
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Older Canadians are also more likely to be concerned about their overall health and how a new virus in Canada could mean worse results for them, he added.
“They’re just looking: I’m older, I’m more at risk of dying from an illness or being more seriously ill. And that’s what worries me.”
While many Canadians may be concerned about monkeypox, most of all age groups expressed confidence in Canadian officials to contain the outbreaks, including 72 per cent of those over 55.
Overall, 66 per cent of respondents said they believe Canadian officials are working fast enough to contain monkeypox outbreaks in Canada, the survey suggests.
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But not all regions had the same level of confidence in how governments and health authorities manage monkeypox.
In Quebec, where the vast majority of cases have been identified in Canada, respondents were more likely to feel that officials were moving fast enough to contain the spread of the virus to 76%.
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The province has quickly launched a vaccination program that provides the Imvamune smallpox vaccine to those who have contracted the virus and their close or intimate contacts.
Most cases have been detected among men who have sex with other men, so the vaccine is also being offered to this community as a precautionary measure, the Quebec Public Health Agency said this week.
David Hawkins, executive director of the LGBTQ2 + Center West of Montreal, says he has not felt much concern or talked about the ape smallpox among the queer communities he works with.
In fact, he believes much of the conversation about this virus has focused on the LGBTQ-plus community, because while most cases have been between men who have sex with men, it is not a sexually transmitted disease.
Smallpox smallpox is spread through direct physical contact, which could include sex, but also any skin-to-skin contact or even touching the bedding of infected individuals.
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“I think the unfortunate reality is that the more we have to have these conversations (about monkey pox) and the more they link and group with LGBTQ discourses, the harder it is to separate these things and say they’re completely separate.” said Hawkins.
“It’s been incredibly disproportionate and is distracting us from some of these really important conversations we need to have, such as how to be safe. What steps can we take?”
Meanwhile, in Alberta, where only a handful of cases have been identified, residents appear to be far less convinced that health officials can keep the virus under control.
Read more: 4th case of smallpox detected in Alberta: Hinshaw
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50% of Alberta respondents said they did not agree that Canadian officials could contain the spread of monkeypox, compared to 37% of respondents in Saskatchewan, 35% in Ontario, and 27% in Saskatchewan. British Columbia, 27% in Quebec. and 24 percent in Atlantic Canada.
Part of that may be due to a lower overall level of trust in governments in general among Western Canadians, Jack said.
“The other thing I would say is that western Canada is facing a lot of different issues right now between rising prices and inflation, just like the rest of the country. But those issues could be more pronounced in this part of the country right now. “
Methodology
The results of this survey are based on a survey of 1,001 Canadians aged 18 and over, conducted by Ipsos between June 9 and 13, 2022. Quotas and weights were used to ensure that the composition of the sample reflected the of the Canadian population according to census parameters. . The accuracy of Ipsos online surveys is measured by a credibility interval. In this case, the survey is accurate with about 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The range of credibility will be wider among the subsets of the population. All surveys and sample surveys may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to, coverage errors and measurement errors.
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