economic hardship, right-wing views drive alta.'s vaccine hesitancy

it is  dangerous to be unvaccinated  right now — especially in alberta, where vaccination rates are almost 10 percentage points lower than the  national average .

despite making up just over a third of the population (including kids under 12), unvaccinated — or diagnosed within two weeks from the first immunization date — people made up almost 85 per cent of cases, 85 per cent of hospitalized cases and 77 per cent of covid-19 deaths in the province  since jan. 1, 2021 .

unvaccinated albertans were more than 12 times as likely to die from covid-19 over the last four months than  fully vaccinated albertans . real world vaccine data indicates that two doses of the approved vaccines are  90 per cent effective  at preventing infection.

since the beginning of 2021, less than one per cent of fully vaccinated albertans  have been diagnosed with covid-19  14 days after the second immunization date. vaccines work. yet not everyone in the province seems convinced.

why won’t people in alberta get vaccinated?

for one answer as to why albertans won’t get vaccinated, we can look to the government and lack of provincial leadership in fighting covid-19. despite a strong initial response in march 2020, alberta has fallen behind other provinces in its  implementation of social distancing measures .

this culminated with the provincial government’s “ open for summer ” plan, which removed most covid-19 restrictions and left many residents with the impression that the pandemic was over  just in time for the calgary stampede .

the government justified these moves, in part, by promoting personal responsibility and civic freedoms above social responsibility and government restrictions. opposition to the latter has been driven by  misinformation campaigns , supported by traditional and social media posts from canada, the united states and abroad.

if we want to understand the impact of the government’s approach and the influence of misinformation, we need to talk to the unvaccinated. this is what our team did in  the september 2021 viewpoint alberta survey .

as part of the  common ground  initiative at the university of alberta, our team has been fielding surveys with thousands of albertans for the past two years. our most recent survey asked 1,204 alberta residents about their vaccination status and their views on covid-19 vaccines and policies that support vaccinations.

survey results

vaccine hesitancy also varied among albertans with different political views. the lowest vaccination rates were present among respondents who reported that they would vote for  the wildrose independence party  if a provincial election were held today. only 61 per cent of these respondents were vaccinated.

what should governments and individuals do now?

our research shows that financial insecurity and right-wing beliefs are leading drivers of vaccine hesitancy in alberta. and these factors don’t lend themselves to easy solutions — this is particularly true when we consider the deep  unpopularity of the united conservative party government .

take, for instance, the alberta government’s two primary interventions to increase vaccination rates this summer. first, the government introduced a series of financial incentives —  a million-dollar lottery  and  $100 gift card program  — to encourage albertans to get the shot. neither of these initiatives had a noticeable effect on vaccination rates.

another — the government’s  “restriction exemption” program  — proved more effective by imposing restrictions on certain non-essential businesses who chose not to enforce a vaccine passport system.

of the more than 56 million doses administered in canada,  0.034 per cent of all doses  have resulted in an adverse event. if you are someone who has not yet been vaccinated, now is the time.

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economic hardship, right-wing views drive alta.'s vaccine hesitancy

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