TORONTO - Canadians aren't clamouring en masse for swine flu vaccine, a new poll suggests.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll also indicates some parents have concerns about allowing their children to have a vaccine that contains an adjuvant, a compound that boosts the impact of the vaccine and allows smaller doses to be used.
Only about 45 per cent of respondents intend to get pandemic vaccine when the shots become available later in the fall, the poll found. An equal percentage said they would not take the pandemic shot.
"I think the data show that there is an ambivalence in Canadians about the vaccine," said Dr. Kumanan Wilson, a scientist at the Ottawa Health Research Institute who has done a lot of research on the anti-vaccination movement.
"I think that public health officials need to be concerned about that. Simply having the vaccine isn't going to be enough to have a successful program."
Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, called the numbers "unfortunate" but admitted the agency has actually seen worse.
Butler-Jones said the public health agency has seen polls suggesting the percentage of people who might agree to be vaccinated against the pandemic virus could range from as low as the high 30s to about 60 per cent.
"It is disappointing but we'll see at the end of the day how many people do get immunized," he said, adding that the agency plans to launch a communications campaign aimed at arming people with science so they aren't making their decisions based on "rumours."
The findings are based on telephone interviews conducted between Aug. 20 and Aug. 23. Just over 1,000 Canadians were surveyed, giving the poll a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The figure showing how many Canadians plan to get the pandemic vaccine is higher than for the seasonal flu shot. Last year, for instance, just under a third of Canadians were vaccinated against seasonal flu, according to Statistics Canada.
But it's below uptake rates projected by recent polls in the United States.
Last week an American Red Cross survey suggested as many as 60 per cent of Americans wanted to be vaccinated. A USA Today poll published Tuesday suggested 55 per cent of Americans plan to get a pandemic flu shot.
With seasonal flu vaccine, uptake is highest among seniors and lowest among healthy adults. And The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll showed a similar breakdown when it came to the intentions of various age groups, with 56 per cent of adults 18-34 saying they don't intend to get the shot or shots. (The pandemic vaccine may require two doses to protect.)
But this flu virus seems to preferentially attack the young and spare older adults. The poll results suggest that if healthy adults are targeted for the Canadian vaccination programs, efforts are going to be needed to get them to come forward.
"I think it's going to be a tough sell," Wilson said of the vaccination program in general.
"And I don't think . . . they want to be particularly coercive about this. They're going to have to pick their battles. They're going to have to identify again what are their most important populations to target."
Modelling studies suggest that targeting children and the adults around them would reduce dramatically the spread of flu viruses.
But while 56 per cent of parents who were surveyed said they planned to get their children under 18 years old vaccinated, 30 per cent said they would not. And when the question turned to the use of boosting chemicals known as adjuvants, reluctance rose.
When respondents were asked if they'd allow their children to be vaccinated with vaccine containing an adjuvant, described as a compound that boosts the impact of the vaccine but which hasn't been licensed in previous flu vaccines in Canada, the percentage of parents willing to have their children vaccinated dropped to 35 per cent.
Canadian government officials have indicated they intend to use vaccine with adjuvant, as long as no safety concerns arise.
"If they can't get a good enough uptake among school-aged children that's going to undermine any vaccination program. Because that's the key population, I think," Wilson said.
Vaccine expert Dr. Scott Halperin said if the vaccination rates mirror the poll findings, the ability to limit spread of the virus will be lessened.
"Certainly if you have a larger proportion of people protected, you're going to have less spread of the infection," he said from Geneva, where he is attending a meeting.
Halperin, who is director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said he thinks the poll findings show that officials need to step up the messaging about the benefits of pandemic vaccine.
"This gives us a first blush of what people are planning to do," he said.
"I don't know if it's going to be more or less. But I still think it's a warning sign for public health that there is a lot of work that needs to be done."
