One out of three Quebecers say they are in no rush to be vaccinated should a COVID-19 vaccine be developed and more than half of the parents in the province say they are concerned about Quebec’s back to school plan, a CROP survey conducted for La Presse suggests.

The online survey of 1,000 Quebecers found that while 40 per cent of respondents said they would vaccinated as soon as possible should a vaccine be offered, 35 per cent replied that they would “wait a bit” before doing so and 15 per cent said they would refuse to be vaccinated.

Most respondents who answered that they wanted to be vaccinated as quickly as possible said their decision was primarily based on protecting themselves from COVID-19, while those who preferred to wait explained that they first wanted to see if there any negative side-effects.

The survey also echoed the concerns expressed by some school personnel, health officials and parents over the Legault government’s back-to school plan.

In total, 57 per cent of respondents said they were very or somewhat worried by the prospect of their children returning to school, while 56 per cent said they had little or no information on how the first days back at school would unfold.

The highest level of concern for students heading back to class (40 per cent) came from respondents in Montreal, which was hit hard by the outbreak, as did the highest level of fear (69 per cent) over contracting the coronavirus. In Quebec City, only 44 per cent of respondents expressed worry they might become infected.

Meanwhile, support for wearing face masks seems to have grown rather than diminished following highly publicized demonstrations against regulations that face coverings be mandatory under certain conditions.

While 14 per cent of respondents opposed face masks in a survey conducted last month, that proportion had dropped to 11 per cent in August while support for face coverings grew from 76 per cent to 79 per cent over the same period.

The survey found that support for conspiracy theories remained relatively low in Quebec, with 35 per cent of respondents saying that mainstream media are reporting fake news on the pandemic while 18 per cent said the pandemic was “created by governments to control us.”

The CROP poll was conducted Aug. 14-16 and the respondents pool was weighted to reflect the population through age, gender, education and mother tongue. The format of the survey does not allow for a margin of error to be assigned.

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