Most Canadians still confident in vaccines, but hesitancy has increased, poll says

TORONTO — A new poll says that about three-quarters of Canadian adults still have confidence in vaccines, but hesitancy has increased over the last five years.

The survey conducted by Leger Healthcare and released on Tuesday says 74 per cent of respondents said they were either “very confident” (42 per cent) or “somewhat confident” (32 per cent) in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

But about a quarter of respondents said they are less confident than they were before.

People age 65 and older were the most enthusiastic about immunization and trusting of information available to them, while 30 per cent of those between 18 and 34 reported a drop in confidence.

People expressed the most hesitancy around the COVID-19 and flu vaccines.

The main drivers of vaccine hesitancy, according to health-care providers polled, are concerns about safety (61 per cent), misinformation from social media influencers (53 per cent) and mistrust in institutions (48 per cent).

According to members of the public polled, the top factors influencing their willingness to get a vaccine were their perception of the effectiveness of the vaccine in avoiding serious effects of the virus (63 per cent), severity of symptoms or risk of death from the virus (60 per cent), safety of the vaccine (54 per cent) and likelihood of being exposed to the virus (also 54 per cent).

The results come as health officials urge people to get the flu shot amid a dramatic rise in cases and children’s hospitalizations, including three deaths in Ontario.

Clear, transparent and consistent communication about the risks and benefits of vaccines are critical to building trust, which can be difficult when people are getting information — or misinformation — from so many sources, including social media, said Melicent Lavers-Sailly, vice-president of research at Leger Healthcare.

“Information over the last five years about vaccines has become more fragmented,” said Lavers-Sailly.

“If everybody is saying something different, it is confusing and it makes sense that you would be less confident in what you’re hearing.”

Forty-nine per cent of respondents said they are “very comfortable” with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, with another 20 per cent saying they are “somewhat comfortable.”

Sixteen per cent said they were either “not at all comfortable” or “somewhat uncomfortable” with the MMR vaccine, while another 15 per cent said they didn’t know.

Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said that although she’s encouraged that 74 per cent of Canadians continue to trust vaccines, the poll shows health-care providers need to ask patients about their specific concerns and address them.

“Given the recent measles outbreaks, it shows that even a small drop in MMR confidence is a huge concern,” said Abdurrahman, who is an allergist and clinical immunologist.

“The measles vaccine is one of the safest and most effective tools we have. And we need to reinforce that. So we have to be able to have these conversations and acknowledge that there is medical misinformation out there.”

The number one source of information about vaccines overall is a family doctor or nurse practitioner, the poll said, followed by Canadian government or public health websites.

The fact that about six million people don’t have a family doctor in Canada could contribute to a lack of vaccine confidence, Abdurrahman said.

“I think it actually does play a big role because (with a primary-care provider) you have someone that you’ve built a relationship with over time and there is trust there,” she said.

Many respondents also said they turned to Canadian media for information.

But people who were not confident in vaccines prioritized social media or podcasters over other news sources. Twenty-two per cent of those who said they were “not at all confident” in vaccines said they either didn’t seek out vaccine information or that the question didn’t apply to them.

Seventeen per cent of people who expressed a lack of confidence in vaccines said they got information from U.S. government-related websites.

That concerns Dr. Cora Constantinescu, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Calgary who leads a vaccine hesitancy clinic.

“You can’t trust the U.S. government sources like the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) anymore,” she said.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health and human services secretary, earlier this year dismantled the vaccine advisory body, hand-picking his own new members. Kennedy himself is a longtime anti-vaccine advocate.

But Constantinescu, who is vice-chair of Immunize Canada — a national coalition that promotes vaccine awareness — is still optimistic.

“What this survey shows is that most Canadians are vaccine confident and that can maybe become a national identity. That’s my dream,” she said.

“We choose (the) health of ourselves and our families and our community.”

Leger Healthcare surveyed 300 health-care providers online from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5, 2025 and used those findings to tailor the questions for its online poll of 1,521 Canadians age 18 and older from Nov. 14 to 17, 2025.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

For comparison purposes, Leger Healthcare says a probability sample of this survey’s size yields a margin of error no greater than ±2.50% (19 times out of 20).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2025.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press