Study finds declining trust in doctors and hospitals during COVID hurt vaccination rates

A federally funded study shows that decreased trust in the medical establishment during the COVID-19 pandemic made adults of all political stripes less likely to get vaccinated.

An online survey of 443,455 adults in all 50 states found that the share who expressed trust in doctors and hospitals plunged from 71.5% in April 2020 to 40.1% in January 2024.

Researchers said those with lower trust levels became less likely than others to have received a COVID-19 vaccination, flu vaccine or COVID booster shot.

They blamed politics and the internet for “amplifying” this distrust but noted that “self-reported political affiliation did not meaningfully change these associations.”

“Whether interventions to restore trust could increase compliance with vaccination and other positive health behaviors merits further investigation,” the researchers wrote in the study.

They published their findings Wednesday in JAMA Network Open with funding from the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation and several top universities and private foundations.

The researchers said their work built on earlier studies that have linked high trust levels in the medical establishment to higher vaccination rates.

Nevertheless, they noted multiple limitations in their analysis, including that most participants did not respond to every stage of the multi-year survey.

Reached for comment, some medical experts not connected with the study said it confirms that elected officials transformed the pandemic from a scientific event into a political one.

“I don’t believe that the lack of trust is primarily the fault of the physicians and hospitals, but the fault of the politicians who first evaded the issue, then abdicated their responsibilities and eventually used the pandemic as just another partisan issue to wield against their political opponents,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who has treated COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, immediate past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said conflicting public health messages further weakened public faith in doctors.

“We told people first no need for masks, then we said use a mask, then we said use two masks,” said Dr. del Rio, associate dean at Emory University School of Medicine. “Science evolved, but people don’t understand that, they want black-and-white recommendations. Unfortunately, an evolving pandemic with a novel virus does not do that.”

The study published Wednesday also asked a random subset of respondents why they said between April and May 2023 that they trusted doctors and hospitals “not at all” or “a little.”

In open-ended responses, researchers said 35% gave answers suggesting the medical establishment placed “financial motives over patient care.”

Another 27.5% cited “poor quality of care and negligence,” 13.5% mentioned the “influence of external entities and agendas” and 4.5% said it was because of “discrimination and bias.”

The remaining 19.5% gave “other” reasons.

Medical experts said these results call on the health system to correct misinformation on social media, communicate more clearly in future pandemics and make vaccination a non-political issue again.

“Medical and public health organizations need to listen to concerns, reflect on them and find ways to … rethink approaches in light of the pandemic,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a health policy and management professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “There is also much work for society more generally to do to create an information environment that supports rather than undermines trust in expertise and evidence.”

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.