More than half of people in Canada believe that lockdowns is a beneficial tactic to control the spread of COVID-19 , a new Ipsos poll suggests.
According to the poll, people aged 55 and over are more supportive of lockdowns and restrictions than younger people aged 18 to 34. Forty three per cent of younger respondents tend to think that the actions taken by governments to combat Omicron are “too much,” whereas 41 per cent older people feel that governments’ responses have been “too little.”
For people who are 55 and over, health is one of their major concerns. “Those aged 55 plus are most at risk from contracting COVID-19 and developing serious health implications and issues from COVID-19,” said Sean Simpson, senior vice-president of Ipsos.
“The belief of whether or not COVID-19 presents a significant risk to your health is driven by age.”
One of the top issues that people aged 55 and over would like governments to address is to increase the funding for hospitals, said Simpson. The poll results suggest that 89 per cent of Canadians support the idea of governments making more investments into the health-care system.
People 55 and over are less likely to worry about the negative impacts that lockdowns and restrictions could possibly bring them, since those restrictions do not “change a lot of things for people who are not quite as active in the economy,” said Simpson.
For some young people, however, lockdowns present big problems.
“Lockdowns and restrictions are stopping us from reaching opportunities,” said Lori Wang, a 21-year-old studying at the University of Victoria.
“All the restrictions have made our lives very challenging since we are forced to change or cancel our plans most of the time due to all kinds of restrictions.”
The poll indicates that the support for lockdowns has dropped four percentage points overall since December, and 17 points since July.
About the study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between Jan. 14 and 17, 2022, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. The poll is considered accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.