Trust in Science Hasn’t Fully Recovered from Pandemic Controversies; One-third of Americans Don’t Trust the COVID Vaccines, Survey Finds, and other C-Virus related stories
Trust in science hasn’t fully recovered from pandemic controversies:
The pandemic and the chaos and controversies that came with it led to an erosion of trust in scientists, and it may be a while before that trust returns to levels that preceded the contagion. That’s the implication of a survey published Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
The organization asked adults in the United States if they have confidence in scientists to “act in the best interests of the public.” The vast majority of people still do, saying they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence.
But although the new numbers show a small uptick in trust in scientists over the past year, the public’s confidence in that community remains significantly eroded.
When Pew conducted such a survey in January 2019, 86 percent of respondents said they had “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of confidence in scientists. That sentiment held steady at 87 percent in the April 2020 survey at the height of the initial wave of infections that struck the United States. But in a survey in November 2020 that figure began to show the erosion, and trust bottomed out at 73 percent in October 2023.
The latest result showed a small bump to 76 percent.
“We’re calling it a slight uptick,” said Alec Tyson, associate director at Pew Research Center and lead author of the report. “At least for now, it marks an end to the decline that we saw during the pandemic.”
The survey captures a partisan divide over scientists and their role in crafting policy. Democrats have a higher level of trust in scientists than Republicans, and are significantly more positive than Republicans about scientists being engaged in policy discussions. —>READ MORE HERE
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| Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images |
One-third of Americans don’t trust the COVID vaccines, survey finds:
Across the U.S., 35% of adults reported that they did not trust COVID-19 vaccines, without much variation across years 2021-2023, according to a survey published in the journal Vaccine: X this week. Vaccine hesitancy is one piece of a growing distrust in public health exacerbated by the government’s pandemic response that many experts fear will only deepen with the new Trump Administration.
About 81% of Americans got at least one COVID vaccination, which helped the country build up enough herd immunity that most people could return to their daily activities without some of the health interventions like mask mandates and stay-at-home orders that had been issued to keep communities safe. Though the vaccines can have side effects and sometimes harm people, these outcomes are very rare and no match for the damage the virus itself does to the body. The vaccines are considered extremely safe.
Of course, life didn’t go back to normal for millions of people who lost family members to COVID or who are still dealing with debilitating symptoms of long COVID, in which the symptoms of infection can linger for months or even years. In another study published this week, this time in the journal Vaccine, COVID vaccination was associated with a reduced risk for developing long COVID.
The Trump Administration rolled out the vaccines in record-time through Operation Warp Speed, but the expediency of the process, along with misinformation circulating online, left many dubious of them. Mixed messaging from the government also led to the politicization of public health, which added gasoline to an already flaming issue. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended masks while Trump refused to wear one, and the same agency recommended social distancing but Trump encouraged supporters to protest virus restrictions in large groups. —>READ MORE HERE
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