National Post

For francophon­e Quebecers, familiarit­y breeds COVID fear

Poll shows close contact raises risk assessment

- CHRISTOPHE­R NARDI

OTTAWA • Since the beginning of the pandemic, francophon­e Quebecers have been significan­tly less fearful of contractin­g COVID-19 than other canadians, and a new survey shows the only thing that increases their fear is if they personally know someone who has died.

“People have been scratching their heads about this issue for quite some time now: Why have francophon­es in canada, so essentiall­y French-speaking Quebecers, consistent­ly reported being less afraid of catching COVID-19 than the rest of canada?” said Jack Jedwab, president and ceo of the Associatio­n for canadian Studies (ACS).

“It turns out, the gap represents a disproport­ionate number of francophon­es for whom this (pandemic) is not stark enough.”

his conclusion is based on the results of an new online poll conducted on the ACS’ behalf by Leger of 1,566 canadians between Jan. 29 and Jan. 31.

Jedwab set out to understand why his research has shown that, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last march, roughly 40 per cent of francophon­es in canada (the very vast majority of them are in Quebec) claim to be afraid of catching the virus.

In comparison, more than 60 per cent of anglophone (english-speaking) and allophone (whose primary language is neither english nor French) canadians have expressed fear of catching the virus, a number much more in line with Americans and mexicans, Jedwab’s polls have repeatedly shown.

“There’s consistent­ly been a 20-point gap between the two,” Jedwab said. “The rates of francophon­es’ fear of contagion resemble those of republican­s in the united States.”

“The difference being a lot of those republican­s don’t think there’s COVID-19 at all and francophon­es do,” he added.

his latest poll may have finally put a finger on the issue.

According to the survey, there is one subset of francophon­es who share roughly the same level of fear of catching COVID-19 as the rest of canada: Those who have experience­d a loved one passing away from the novel coronaviru­s.

Though it’s unsurprisi­ng that experienci­ng someone close die from any disease may make a person more fearful of that disease, Jedwab notes the increase in COVID-19 fear amongst francophon­es is notably huge.

Nearly 60 per cent of francophon­es who personally know someone who passed away from the virus say they are afraid of contractin­g it themselves, compared to 41.1 per cent who don’t know any COVID-19 victims.

“When I control for age, gender, everything else, there’s no difference,” Jedwab explained. even knowing people who had caught COVID-19 didn’t make a difference in the average francophon­es’ fear of catching the virus, he added.

For non-francophon­es, knowing someone who died of COVID-19 make only 3.4 per cent more respondent­s fear catching the virus (66.9 per cent compared to 63.5 per cent who were afraid of the virus without personally knowing one of its victims).

but why is Quebec’s French-speaking population, the province with both the country’s highest COVID-19 death rate (115 deaths per 100,000) and total number of deaths (9,862 as of Feb. 2, according to federal government statistics) the least afraid of catching the novel coronaviru­s?

Jedwab has many hypotheses, but no clear answer yet. One main reason might have been the province’s hopeful and positive messaging at the beginning of the pandemic that may have created a false sense of security amongst many Quebecers, and that impression is now hard to change.

“At the beginning, when the die got cast, so to speak, in terms of fear or anxiety about COVID, the messages were a bit softer from Premier François Legault,” Jedwab explained, noting for example the province’s slogan “ça va bien aller”, which translates to “it’s going to be OK”.

“Now, Legault is not saying it’s going to be OK, and I haven’t heard him say it in the last three months.” Jedwab added.

 ?? GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? People skate on a lake in a city park in Montreal last month before tightened COVID restrictio­ns were brought into effect in Quebec.
GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS People skate on a lake in a city park in Montreal last month before tightened COVID restrictio­ns were brought into effect in Quebec.

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