According to the Santa Monica-based RAND Corp, the public's trust in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has plummeted during the pandemic, bringing it to the same level as that of Black and non-white people.
Surveys taken by the nonprofit think tank in May and October showed a 10% decline in trust in the CDC. The study found that non-Latino white and Latino respondents reported significant declines in trust in the CDC, while there were no significant changes in Black respondents.
"The Biden administration will have an uphill battle in rehabilitating trust in the CDC at this critical junction in the coronavirus pandemic," said Michael Pollard, lead author of the study and a senior social scientist at RAND. "A key challenge in the months ahead will be to identify who will be viewed as trusted messengers regarding vaccines and public health policies."
However, there was an increase in the public’s trust in the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, despite the challenges faced in recent months by both agencies.
"There is remarkable consistency and convergence in reported levels of trust in the CDC across these subgroups after the declines," Pollard said. "Lack of trust among Black Americans has been a well-publicized concern regarding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and the convergence in lower levels of trust across race/ethnicity highlights a key challenge that the CDC now faces."
The survey found that trust in the CDC fell from 7.6 in May to 7 in October. Meanwhile, trust in the Postal Service rose from 6.9 in May to 7.7 in October; trust in FEMA rose from 6.4 in May to 6.7 in October.
Drop in trust of the CDC was particularly significant among people who intended to vote for a candidate other than Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election or did not intend to vote at all, suggesting that views of the CDC are now strongly politicized.
City News Service contributed to this story.