25% of Canadians still believe that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the flu

According to the latest weekly survey by Leger Marketing released today, Sept. 15, 25 per cent of Canadians believe that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu. The same survey found that 23 per cent of Canadians believe that governments and health officials are exaggerating the threat posed by COVID-19 and the need for continued and rigorous public health safety measures. In reality, public health officials in the U.S. and infectious disease researchers in Canada, among many other specialists in medicine, epidemiology and related fields, have concluded that COVID-19 is roughly 10 times more deadly than seasonal flu. (See more about the statistics in the above chart here.) There is also zero evidence that claims about the numbers of infected people and COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. or Canada have been exaggerated.

These results are from a web survey conducted by Leger Marketing from September 1 to 13, 2020, with 1,539 Canadians and 1,001 Americans, 18 years of age or older, randomly recruited from LEO’s online panel. For the full list of results and methodology, please click here.

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