Understanding vaccine hesitancy in Canada: attitudes, beliefs, and the information ecosystem

Executive Summary

This MEO report examines vaccine hesitancy in Canada, drawing on a survey of 39,297 Canadians from June to November 2020 and an analysis of 277 million posts from the most vocal Canadians on Twitter, 204 Reddit communities, 7,838 Canadian Facebook pages and groups, and 4,774 news articles shared on social media.

65% of Canadians intend to take a vaccine, with some slight erosion since a high in July; approximately 15% are unwilling and 20% are unsure. The best opportunity to reach those who are unsure is to address concerns about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Among those who do not plan to take a vaccine, many also believe COVID-19 is not a serious threat, making it very difficult to convince them regardless of a vaccine's efficacy, safety, or country of origin, whereas these characteristics remain critical for other Canadians' decisions.

Canadians are increasingly talking about vaccines on social media, but the positive sentiment promoted by health officials has not taken hold in these conversations. Canadian mainstream media shows minimal coverage of vaccine conspiracies, instead focusing on development, provision, and access, with wide-scale vaccination framed as the solution to the pandemic. Despite this positive coverage, vaccine-related stories from independent outlets circulating on social media more heavily feature conspiratorial thinking and cynicism, eliciting stronger emotional responses that may help such content spread more widely and rapidly. The vaccine conversation on social media largely originates from U.S.-based discussions, and Canadians are heavily influenced by and more likely to propagate non-Canadian content — a flood of U.S.-based information that represents a unique Canadian vulnerability, leaving Canadian elites, medical professionals, scientists, and journalists comparatively less able to reach and inform Canadians.