US public health agencies face increasing credibility concerns during pandemic

It’s no surprise that public health officials have been facing a serious trust issue throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Comments on social media provide a glimpse at the deep divide in trust of public health agencies, and now a new survey demonstrates the breadth of that distrust.

A poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health queried participants on their trust levels for institutions like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the surgeon general of the United States.

The results found the CDC was the most trusted of the agencies, with 52% support of respondents indicating strong trust in the agency, while HHS received the least amount of solid trust, with 33% support. The poll found that 20% of respondents had little to no trust in the CDC, and 28% had little to no trust in HHS.

Local and state health departments ranked second and third in confidence levels. The poll showed that 44% and 41%, respectively, had high levels of confidence, while 18% and 21%, respectively, and had little to no trust.

The NIH and FDA were tied at 37% for high levels of trust. For the NIH, 19% indicated little to no trust, while the numbers increased to 24% for the FDA.

Robert Blendon, the emeritus professor at the Harvard Chan School who oversaw the survey, told NPR there is significant distrust in government agencies across the board. He speculated that if the survey assessed law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, the results would likely be similar.

The low trust in public health agencies during a pandemic has created significant issues as many people rebel against mask mandates and vaccine recommendations. The divide is certainly along political lines, and that’s in large part due to mixed messaging from political leaders, as well as incomplete and confusing messaging that may come from government agencies themselves, particularly when it comes to issues such as school reopening plans, mask mandates and other protective measures. According to the poll, 27% of Republicans have confidence in the CDC, compared to 76% of Democrats.

The CDC mask mandates were recently slammed by Kavita Patel, a former official in the Obama White House as director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.

In an interview with CNBC, Patel said the agencies slow updates on masks lead to that eroding confidence in public health agencies.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, also recently criticized the CDCs mixed guidance messaging during a Congressional hearing on pandemic response, CNBC reported.

“I used to have the utmost respect for the guidance from the CDC,” Collins said. “I always considered the CDC to be the Gold Standard. I don’t anymore.”

In an interview with CNBC, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky defended the continued use of masks, even as the percentage of Americans receiving a COVID-19 vaccine rises. Walensky said the agency is “following the science” She noted that guidance changes as health officials learn new information about COVID-19 and the different variants. With recent authorization of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for youths ages 12-15, Walensky said the guidance would likely change again.

The COVID-19 variants remain a high concern for the CDC and its recommendations for mask wearing indoors, even among people who have been vaccinated, she said. There are still questions about whether or not people who are vaccinated could be asymptomatic carriers of some of the variants, which means they could unknowingly expose other people to the more virulent strains.

In its analysis of the poll, NPR notes the survey does not seek to answer why there is distrust, and that’s something Blendon says will need to be addressed by health officials before the next pandemic comes. Biospace