Majority want vaccine, poll reveals
67% plan to get shots, 14% say no and one in five remain undecided
On the day the first British Columbian received a vaccination against COVID-19, a poll shows that two-thirds of people in the province say they will step up and get the jab.
“The question that needs to be asked is not are you going to (get the vaccine), but why wouldn't you?” said Wesley Lewin of Maple Ridge.
“My father's dad died of polio when (my father) was just five years old, and that wasn't that long ago,” Lewin said of the once-prevalent contagious viral infection that caused paralysis and sometimes death before a vaccine was developed. “We have to do a better job of proving how safe these (vaccines) actually are. You won't change the mind of the nine per cent (of those who oppose the vaccine nationally), but we have to make sure those who are undecided understand the facts.”
The new poll, conducted by Leger, found that 67 per cent of British Columbians intend to get the vaccine, while 14 per don't, and 19 per cent haven't decided.
Maria Werring Morrow of Agassiz said she supports vaccination, but said there isn't enough information about the COVID vaccine available yet.
“I'm not going to run out and get one right away because it's kind of scary,” said Werring Morrow, who added that she's careful to wash her hands, social distance, wear a mask on the rare occasion she goes out, and maintains a “very small bubble.”
Lewin and Werring Morrow were among a number of people who responded to Postmedia social media posts asking about their willingness to volunteer to be vaccinated.
On Tuesday, Nisha Yunus, a residential care aide at Providence Health Care, became the first person in B.C. to be injected with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
B.C. received its first shipment of the vaccine on Sunday, and Yunus was among 4,000 workers in longterm care facilities to get the jab.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the vaccine will be available at two clinics in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser health regions before immunization is expanded to 30 sites.
Health officials expect about 400,000 British Columbians, less than 10 per cent of the population, will be vaccinated by March.
Canada signed a contract to receive up to 168,000 doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine before the end of the year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday. Once the Moderna vaccine is approved by Health Canada, deliveries could begin within 48 hours, he said.
“I understand the Moderna vaccine is very close to approval,” said B.C. Premier John Horgan.
He said the Pfizer vaccine, which requires minus-70 Celsius temperatures during storage and transport, will go first to frontline workers and “Moderna and other vaccines that are easier to transport” will be administered in long-term care homes before being rolled out elsewhere.
He didn't want to predict “where and how we will be distributing vaccines in February and March,” he said. Those decisions will be made “as we see what the scarcity issue is all about, how many vaccines we have available to us, and how best to distribute those.”