Nearly 30% of Canadians say it’s time to ‘learn to live’ with COVID-19: poll

Public health experts said Thursday the results of the Leger survey indicate a level of fatigue among the population, but warned a public health threat still exists.

A new poll suggests almost 30 per cent of Canadians believe it’s time to lift pandemic restrictions and “learn to live” with the COVID-19 virus, while more than 40 per cent want measures to ease carefully.

Public health experts said Thursday the results of the Leger survey indicate a level of fatigue among the population. But being tired of the pandemic doesn’t mean the threat is gone.

“We do need to adopt a more sustainable approach to COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind,” said Roman Pabayo, an epidemiologist with the University of Alberta.

“I still think we need to be cautious as we move forward and make decisions on removing restrictions in a scientifically-informed, public health-informed way.”

Forty-three per cent of Canadians surveyed by Leger identified their feelings about the current state of the pandemic as “prudent” — the most popular answer of four options — saying they did not want to lift restrictions too quickly.

But 29 per cent said they were ready to move on, indicating they were “adequately vaccinated” and viewed the Omicron variant as “less serious.”

The other 28 per cent were evenly split among those who said they were anxious and those who were angry.

Fourteen per cent didn’t feel comfortable at all lifting safety measures, while the other 14 said they have been opposed to mandates and measures “for a while” and wanted governments to “give us back our freedom.”