Where does Canadians stand on vaccination?

Toronto Health Minister Christine Elliott confirmed via a tweet on Friday that every long-term care home has received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. But Toronto Public Health says less than half of long-term care home staff have received the vaccine.

The first phase of vaccine rollout targets frontline healthcare workers, long-term care residents and the staff, and a few Indigenous populations. It is expected to take until spring to open the vaccination to a bigger population.

But some Canadians are still hesitant to take the vaccine. A poll done by Windsor Regional Hospital found that 21 percent of the staff from senior homes are refusing or delaying getting vaccinated.

Uncertainty still lurks around the corner. In San Diego, six health care workers received the Moderna vaccine and had a severe allergic reaction. In Norway, apparently, 23 people died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. 13 of which have been assessed and are said to be elderly who were already sick.

There has been a rising concern about vaccines across Canada. People are hesitant as incidents like California, Norway makes the headline. Canadians are going online and doing their own research to make up their mind about getting themselves injected with the COVID-19 vaccine.

The chart above shows the growing interest of Canadians in COVID-19 vaccines. It shows data collected from Google Trends from Nov 2020 to date.

The Pfizer vaccines have to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius for them to be effective. It isn't easy to store and transport. On top of that, Pfizer told Canada that they would be cutting the shipments in half for the next four weeks, which puts a halt to vaccination in many regions.

Meanwhile, the Moderna vaccine can be transported easily, as it can refrigerate at regular freezer temperature.

COVID-19 vaccines — The time to deliver vaccines equitably is now

WHO Director-General Dr.Tedros says it's one of the humanities great races, and we will have to win it together. According to data published by WHO, 42 countries have already started vaccination. Only six are middle-income countries. No low-income countries have started receiving the vaccine yet. COVAX is a global initiative driven to guarantee access to the COVID-19 vaccine to every country in the world. It has secured contracts of two billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccines are yet to be delivered for rollout.

The chart shows the percentage of searches since Oct 2020 to date.

Between the two vaccines, Pfizer is still popular among Canadian searches. The chart shows the number of searches made in Google. The blue indicates the Pfizer vaccine, whereas the red shows the interest in the Moderna vaccine. And clearly, Pfizer is more popular among Canadians across Canada.

The anxiety is still looming among many Canadians. Should I take the vaccine? This should only be answered through factual information. There is a lot of propaganda that goes around, but Canadians can keep on feeding themselves information about the vaccine. By the time the vaccination starts for the broader public, you will be set.