Trust in Government Agencies in the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

As the US faced its lowest levels of reported trust in government, the COVID-19 crisis revealed the essential service that various federal agencies provide as sources of information. This Element explores variations in trust across various levels of government and government agencies based on a nationally-representative survey conducted in March of 2020. First, it examines trust in agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, state health departments, and local health care providers. This includes variation across key characteristics including party identification, age, and race. Second, the Element explores the evolution of trust in health-related organizations throughout 2020 as the pandemic continued. The Element concludes with a discussion of the implications for agency-specific assessments of trust and their importance as we address historically low levels of trust in government. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. ; This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. RAPID-2026763. The authors would also like to thank the offices of the Senior Vice President and Provost and the Vice President for Research and Partnerships for their financial support. This support allowed us to make this volume available as Open Access permanently so that as many people as possible have access to the volume. ; Yes