# 1596
It is truly a shame that disasters and crises don't occur based on the public's level of concern or awareness of them. Were that true, a pandemic would be be a slim possibility, based on this review of Canadian's level of concern on this issue.
Canada is by no means alone in this. Here in the United States, I doubt if the level of awareness or concern is any higher. And from my correspondence with friends in Europe, it may be even less there.
This story from the Ottawa Sun.
Disease low on Canuck fears: Survey
By CHRISTINA SPENCER
The Ottawa Sun
Fewer than half of Canadians think a pandemic disease outbreak is likely in the next five years, and only one in 10 has drawn up any sort of emergency plan for how their family would cope if one occurred.
Many Canadians also don't understand that if a flu pandemic hit, vaccines would not be immediately available.
These worrisome conclusions appear in a fresh study for the Public Health Agency of Canada that examines attitudes of 4,463 Canadians toward pandemic influenza. The Environics survey was recently posted on a government website.
"Most individuals do not believe it is likely that Canada will face a pandemic outbreak in the next five years, suggesting that this is not a top-of-mind issue for Canadians," the survey says.
The Environics study follows initial surveys done in 2004, after an outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed 800 people worldwide, including 44 in Canada, the previous year.
About 42% of those asked thought it likely that a pandemic outbreak would occur in the next five years. While 56% said they had read or seen information about pandemic influenza and how to reduce its spread, only 11% had specifically sought information on pandemics.
Better-educated and more affluent Canadians are more familiar with the general subject of pandemics, and women are more familiar with the issues than men.
But there is still poor understanding of how to cope with an outbreak. Only 14% knew that a pandemic would involve a new virus to which people would not be immune, and that it would take time to produce a vaccine.
