'Show compassion to other people': local health leaders react to 'attitudes toward unvaccinated' poll

Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent public health leaders are urging compassion toward people who remain unvaccinated after a national survey indicates a growing lack of sympathy towards that segment of the population who fall ill or die from COVID-19.

The survey, released Wednesday by Maru Public Opinion, “delves into the attitudes of Canadians towards the one-in-ten (nine per cent) who admit they are currently unvaccinated.”

Some of the key findings include a view held by nearly half of respondents (48 per cent) that the unvaccinated are responsible for overwhelming the health care system. Forty per cent believe unvaccinated people are holding Canadians back from having a “new normal life.”

A majority of respondents (54 per cent) say they don’t have sympathy for the unvaccinated who get seriously ill or die from COVID.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says this is just a poll, noting the way questions are framed can often affect the response people give.

“As doctors, we have to have compassion for all people, even people who don’t agree with our public health advice,” Nesathurai says. “I would say that if someone is sick, the healthcare system has an obligation to treat them as best as we can with the resources we have at that time.”

“Although I understand why this poll might suggest people are angry, I think that really the focus has to be on trying collectively to do better so we can bring COVID-19 under control.”

Nesathurai says as the pandemic shifts into an endemic, attitudes and practices need to begin shifting into normalizing COVID-19 as part of our lives, “because we’re not going to be able to eradicate it,” he says.

“We owe it to each other to in all matters of our life to show compassion to other people. The health system’s cornerstone is compassion, is to understand how we can comfort the people afflicted by illness, if at all possible try to mitigate illness and on the few instances, try to cure illness,” he says. “I’m hopeful that people will continue to express compassion towards other people.”

Another aspect of the Maru survey asked Canadians what measures they would deem acceptable to forcibly encourage the unvaccinated to get their COVID inoculations. Two-thirds (66 per cent) expressed a willingness for the government to impose a country-wide vaccine mandate for everyone aged five and up.

-77 per cent said they feel it’s appropriate to continue ongoing restrictions barring unvaccinated people from entering public spaces and premises such as restaurants, cinemas, libraries, liquor and cannabis stores, and various retail outlets.

-61 per cent believe unvaccinated people should pay out of pocket for the full medical cost if they are admitted to hospital or an ICU because they have contracted COVID.

-61 per cent believe unvaccinated people should pay a monetary healthcare surcharge on their taxes of up to $150 per month.

-37 per cent say hospitals should refuse to allow them access to any publicly funded hospital/medical services.

-33 per cent say they should be refused from renewing their driver’s license.

-27 per cent say people who remain unvaccinated should serve up to five days as part of a jail sentence for endangering others/overwhelming healthcare system.

Dr. David Colby of Chatham-Kent Public Health echoed his local counterpart’s sentiments.

“Responding to a survey where people express their casual opinions does not reflect the kind of compassion that people would have for a fellow human being in need,” Colby says.

“Even though people might express some very harsh opinions on paper or in an electronic survey, I think when push comes to shove, you’re not going to see — I would hope we’re not going to see — any lack of compassion for our fellow humans.”

Both Nesathurai and Colby agree that vaccinations are the pathway out of the current hospital crisis and toward a more normal way of life, but say directing anger and a lack of empathy toward people who remain unvaccinated is not the way to go about it in a civil society.

“Yeah, I think they’re mistaken,” Colby says. “That doesn’t mean that such people deserve any less compassion than anyone else.

The Maru Public Opinion survey was undertaken on Jan. 14 and 15, 2022, by Maru/Blue. According to a release from the politically unaffiliated polling group, 1,506 Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists were selected.

A probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.