Americans reported lower levels of trust in the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, though trust levels varied among different groups of people, according to a survey from the Rand Corp.
For the survey, Rand asked a nationally representative sample of 2,000 individuals in May 2020 to report their levels of trust in the CDC on a scale of one (complete distrust) to 10 (complete trust). In October of that year, they asked a random sample of 1,892 of the original respondents to again report their trust levels in the CDC.
Overall trust in the CDC fell from 7.6 to 7 from May to October. Across racial groups, non-Hispanic white and Hispanic respondents reported significant declines in trust, while Black respondents didn't report a statistically significant change. Additionally, Americans who supported former President Donald Trump saw significant declines in trust in the CDC, while those who supported President Joe Biden didn't see significant changes in trust.
"These surveys show that the CDC will need some perception rehabilitation, particularly among those who reported intending to vote for someone other than Biden or not vote at all (who had low levels of initial trust that declined even further)," Rand said. "Although we know that the Black community has had low trust in the CDC, it is now similarly low across all of the groups."
View the full study here.