Juno News - Majority of Canadians are ready to live with COVID-19

00:00:00.000 Throughout the course of the pandemic, I've had the opportunity to speak with and learn from some

00:00:10.440 top-notch medical voices who have pretty much maintained throughout that a better way is

00:00:15.580 possible, that we don't need broad-based lockdowns, that we can manage COVID-19 while still getting on

00:00:21.940 with our lives. Now, unfortunately, the general public has largely not been sharing that perspective

00:00:27.980 for a variety of reasons. Polling numbers indicated that always about two-thirds of Canadians were fine

00:00:34.760 with the lockdowns that were implemented throughout different waves here in Canada, but new polling

00:00:40.860 numbers show that opinion is changing. Things have been turned on its head. A new poll out from Maru

00:00:47.600 shows that two-thirds of Canadians now are saying, uh-uh, we're done with this. COVID-19 is a real

00:00:54.500 thing that, sure, we're concerned about, but we're ready to get on with our lives. It's quite

00:00:59.720 interesting to break down some of these polling results. They ask Canadians when it comes to

00:01:04.620 Omicron fears, hey, is Omicron meaning that your workplace is changing its rules, changing the way

00:01:10.680 it's doing things? Three-quarters of respondents say, uh-uh, that's not happening. They say, are Omicron

00:01:16.800 fears? Are they changing your travel plans, your daily plans in any way? Uh-uh. Three-quarters of people

00:01:22.420 say, that's not the case. So we see that people are just wanting to move forward with things. Then

00:01:28.660 there's a question where they ask, do you agree with the statement that vaccines and or people's

00:01:32.880 natural immunity will help us get through this latest phase? The majority of people say yes. Now, other

00:01:39.140 questions say, are you concerned about Omicron? And 50% of people say, yeah, I'm quite concerned about

00:01:43.900 it. They also ask, do you think Omicron is going to be more transmissible and deadlier? And what's

00:01:49.780 interesting is a lot of people say, yes, we believe it will be deadlier. Even though right

00:01:54.580 now reports on the ground, everything we're hearing from South Africa and other jurisdictions

00:01:58.420 indicates it's not deadlier. But it's kind of interesting that even based on the assumption

00:02:03.900 that Omicron is deadlier, the majority of people still say, look, let's get on with our lives. This

00:02:10.840 doesn't mean they're in denial of any reality that's going on right now. It just means they're looking

00:02:15.620 around. They're saying it's been two years. We've learned a lot. There's a lot of new directions

00:02:19.840 we're headed in and let's productively move forward with our lives. Public opinion flipping

00:02:25.820 around. It's changing. The majority of people no longer support broad-based public health measures.

00:02:32.140 It'll be really interesting to see governments listen to this, reflect, internalize, and hopefully

00:02:37.060 we finally proceed towards that better way.

Juno News - December 13, 2021