Pandemic Public Health Policy and Trust: Did We Lose the Latter Through the Former’s Actions?

In the second installment of our interview with Robert Hopkins Jr, MD, the medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), he discusses some of the takeaways in how public health messaging was lost on the public, which lead to mistrust, and thus leaving open the door for disinformation and misinformation.

This is part of our ongoing series on the 5-year anniversary of the pandemic that includes achievements and lessons learned.

March marks the 5-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown in the US. And while there are many who would just soon forget it, there are achievements and important lessons to discuss, especially as the possibility of another pandemic happening is a very real possibility.

One of the residual effects of the pandemic has been the continued reduction of the public’s trust with regards to governmental health agencies. In a Kaiser Family Foundation ( KFF) Poll, which was released earlier this year, it found that public trust in government health agencies has dropped—significantly in some cases—over the past 18 months, and this signals a continuing decline that began during the pandemic.¹

“The share who says they trust the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 'a great deal' or 'a fair amount' to make the right recommendations on health dropped slightly from 66% in June 2023 to 61% now, while trust in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state and local public health officials each dropped by double digits (from 65% to 53% and 64% to 54%, respectively),” KFF wrote.¹

According to KFF, this decline in trust in agencies began during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and it applied to the CDC, FDA, local public health departments, Anthony Fauci, MD, the former White House chief medical advisor and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, and former President Joe Biden.²

“About two-thirds trust COVID-19 vaccine information from the CDC (64%) or the FDA (62%) and about half of adults trust their state government officials (54%), Dr. Anthony Fauci (53%), and President Joe Biden (49%),” another KFF poll found. ²

Interesting to note, KFF found COVID-19 vaccine uptake varied depending on political status. “Democrats (92%), adults 65 and older (88%), college graduates (86%), and those with a serious health condition (85%) continue to report the highest rates of being vaccinated. Republicans (55%), those under age 65 without health insurance (56%), and White Evangelical Christians (57%) are among those with the lowest vaccination rates.”²

The 5-year Anniversary of the Pandemic Series

Here are other articles from the series:

With the Rise of COVID-19 Vaccines, a Greater Public Mistrust of Immunizations Has Taken Hold

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Significance of Screening and Industry's Response

In thinking about masking and vaccine mandates, Robert Hopkins Jr, MD, the medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), says greater clarify in communication can go a long way in helping the public understand why they are put in place.

“Anytime we're talking about something that we need to make mandatory, we really need to carefully explain why that needs to be done in clear terms that can be understood by the widespread different groups within society,” he said.

Nonetheless, there was an erosion of the public’s trust in health agencies and leaders around the COVID-19 vaccines, therapies, and masking, which left many people with what they perceived as unanswered questions; thus leaving the door open for people to seek out alternative information that led to confirmation bias and ultimately to disinformation and misinformation that still exists today.

“It's critical that all segments of our public health system and our leadership speak with one voice about recommendations, Hopkins said. “We need to be attentive to not only what message we're delivering, but also who's giving that message and the content of that message, so that we're not making some people feel like they're being ignored. Misinformation and disinformation grow easily in times of stress. They're terribly hard to remove from public consciousness once they germinate. And trust is really hard to regain once it's lost.”

Reference
1. Kearney A, et al. KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: January 2025. KFF. January 28, 2025. Accessed March 27, 2025.
https://www.kff.org/health-information-and-trust/poll-finding/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-january-2025/
2. Sparks G, et al. KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: April 2022. KFF. May 4, 2022. Accessed March 27, 2025.
https://www.kff.org/health-information-and-trust/poll-finding/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-january-2025/