The COVID-19 pandemic eroded Americans' trust in experts and elected leaders, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper cited a survey released by the Pew Research Center that showed that confidence ratings for public health officials fell in a range from 43% to 54%, much lower than during the early stages of the pandemic.
Those officials included those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and President Joe Biden.
The survey found a wide partisan gap in attitudes. While 72% of Democrats in the survey said public health officials had done an excellent job, only 29% of Republicans agreed.
A new survey from Rasmussen Reports revealed that 73% of Democrats say most experts were correct about the COVID-19 pandemic, but only 24% of Republicans agreed; 37% of unaffiliated voters agree most experts were right.
In the Rasmussen survey, 65% of Republicans say most experts got COVID-19 wrong, while 16% of Democrats agree; 44% of unaffiliated people say most experts got it wrong.
The survey also reveals that a majority of Americans think it's more important to research health issues than simply trusting experts, although Democrats trust experts more.
In terms of their own healthcare decisions, 35% of American adults say it's safe to trust advice from experts, while 58% say it's important to do your own research.
On health-related issues, 13% in the Rasmussen survey say they have a lot of trust in experts who give advice on TV and other media, while 28% have some trust in media experts. However, 34% say they do not have very much trust in health advice from media experts, and 19% have no trust at all in such experts.
While a majority (63%) of Democrats in the Rasmussen survey have at least some trust in experts who give health advice in the media, that opinion is shared by just 28% of Republicans and 34% of the unaffiliated.
Similarly, in terms of their own health-care decisions, 52% of Democrats say it's safe to trust advice from experts, but only 22% of Republicans and 30% of the unaffiliated agree. Seventy-three percent of Republicans, 43% of Democrats, and 60% of the unaffiliated say it's important to do your own research about health-care decisions.
Men (49%) in Rasmussen's survey are significantly more likely than women (36%) to have at least some trust in health advice from media experts.
The latest Rasmussen survey of 1,110 American adults was conducted Jan. 23-25 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is plus/minus percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.