COVID anxiety moderate to low: 6th wave hasn’t caused a spike in fear
April 15, 2022
We recently completed a national survey with a sample of 2,000 Canadians from April 4 to 9, 2022.
WORRIED ABOUT COVID TODAY
Just under 1 in 5 people in Canada indicate they are extremely or very worried about Covid 19 today, while 59% say they are not very concerned or only a little bit concerned. Concern levels are modestly higher among older than younger people. Those who are vaccinated are more concerned than those who aren’t, by a wide margin.
IS YOUR ANXIETY RISING OR FALLING?
Roughly equal numbers of people say they have been more worried (29%) in recent days as say they have become less worried (27%). The number of people who say they have become more worried is up slightly from February but is one of the lower levels we’ve seen over the two years we’ve been tracking this indicator.
IS THE WORST BEHIND US?
The number of people who feel the worst of Covid is yet to come is 16%, which is actually down from the 25% we measured in January. Forty (40%) percent say the worst is behind us now, close to the highest number we’ve measured in two years.
THE UPSHOT
According to Bruce Anderson:
“The 6th wave of the Covid pandemic has had a far weaker impact on public anxiety than the waves that preceded it. This is undoubtedly because so many people are vaccinated but also because as the number of cases rose dramatically, more and more people either experienced firsthand, or heard from those they know, that their symptoms were manageable and that the strains on the health system were limited.“
METHODOLOGY
The survey was conducted with 2,000 Canadian adults from August 4 to 9, 2022. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are typically double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.
The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.1% 19 times out of 20.
The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
This survey was paid for by Abacus Data Inc.
Abacus Data follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here: https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/
ABOUT ABACUS DATA
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