Monkeypox has half of Canadians worried, but most confident in health response: poll
Global News
Monkeypox has at least half of Canadians are concerned, but a majority is confident officials are containing the virus, according to a new Ipsos poll exclusively for Global News.
At least half of Canadians are concerned about outbreaks of the monkeypox virus in Canada, but this concern doesn’t come close to the distress people felt over COVID-19, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News.
Even as monkeypox cases continue to slowly rise in pockets of the country, 67 per cent of the population is confident Canadian officials have the situation well in hand, the poll suggests.
“I think people are concerned 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 driven by the fact the Canadians haven’t necessarily engaged on monkeypox as a major issue. Also, they have seen government perform over the last couple of years (in response to) COVID-19 … They have a pretty good idea of what the government is capable of doing when they’re managing these sorts of things.”
As of Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported the number of monkeypox cases in the country had grown to 159. This includes 132 cases in Quebec, 21 cases in Ontario, four in Alberta and two in British Columbia.
The polling showed that 55 per cent of those surveyed overall expressed concern about the spread of monkeypox in Canada and 67 per cent indicated they are confident that health officials will be able to contain the spread of the virus.
Seniors expressed the highest levels of concern and were more likely to be following news about outbreaks, even though many of them may have more protection from the disease than their kids or grandkids, due to the smallpox vaccine. Canadians born in 1972 or later have not been routinely immunized against smallpox.
A total of 61 per cent of respondents aged 55 and over said they were concerned about the spread of monkeypox in Canada, compared to 56 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 and 48 per cent of those aged 35 to 54.
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