Poll: Americans trust scientists less than before pandemic

Americans have less confidence in medical scientists and scientists now than before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, a shift in attitudes toward both groups, according to a new poll.

Overall, 29 percent of US adults say they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public, down from 40 percent who said that in November 2020.

The share of people with a great deal of confidence in scientists is down by 10 percentage points from 39 percent to 29 percent, according to a new Pew Research Center survey published on Feb 15.

Other prominent groups — including the military, police, public school principals, elected officials, religious and business leaders and journalists — also saw their ratings decline in the survey.

Business leaders and elected officials represented the two least trusted groups. Medical scientists and scientists remain the most trusted of the other groups in the survey.

Public confidence in medical scientists and scientists had increased shortly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak, according to an April 2020 Pew survey, but trust has steadily declined over the course of the pandemic, the poll found.

However, large majorities of Americans continue to have at least a fair amount of confidence in medical scientists — 78 percent — and scientists — 77 percent — to act in the public's best interests.

According to the survey, Republicans have the least confidence in medical scientists — 66 percent — which is down from 88 percent pre-pandemic, it said that Democrats have more trust in medical scientists than they did pre-pandemic, with 90 percent now versus 87 percent in January 2019.

The survey is based on interviews with 14,497 Americans between Nov 30 and Dec 21, 2021, as the Omicron variant was first detected in the US, nearly two years since the coronavirus outbreak took hold. Half of the survey respondents were asked about their confidence in medical scientists, while the other half were asked about scientists.

The share of Americans who say they have a great deal of confidence in the military has fallen 14 points, from 39 percent in November 2020 to 25 percent in the survey. Shares of Americans with a great deal of confidence in K-12 public school principals and police officers also have decreased by 7 and 6 points, respectively.

A large majority of Americans — 74 percent — express at least a fair amount of confidence in the military to act in the public's best interests. Roughly two-thirds say that about police officers — 69 percent — and K-12 public school principals — 64 percent, while 55 percent have at least a fair amount of confidence in religious leaders.

Ratings for elected officials are especially negative: 76 percent say they don't have too much or any confidence in them compared with 24 percent who say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in them.

Six in 10 people now say they don't have too much or any confidence in business leaders and journalists to act in the public's best interests; 4 in 10 say they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in those groups to act in the public's best interests.