Trust in scientists falls in pandemic, survey finds

People in the United States have less confidence in scientists than before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a poll.

Overall, 29 percent of 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 in general also fell to 29 percent from 39 percent, according to the survey from the Pew Research Center published on Feb 15.

Other prominent groups－including the military, police, 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 other scientists remain the most trusted of the other groups in the survey.

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

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

According to the survey, Republicans have the least confidence in medical scientists at 66 percent, down from 88 percent before the pandemic. It found that Democrats have more trust in medical scientists than they did before the COVID-19 crisis, with 90 percent now versus 87 percent in January 2019.

The survey is based on interviews with 14,497 people between Nov 30 and Dec 21, 2021.

The share of people 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. The proportion of people with a great deal of confidence in public school principals and police officers decreased by 7 and 6 points, respectively.

Seventy-four percent of the respondents expressed at least a fair amount of confidence in the military to act in the public's best interests.