On March 11, 2020, The World Health Organization announced that the coronavirus was deemed a pandemic. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asserted,

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear.”

Five years later, Edelman has fielded a survey to determine what some 4,000 health citizens living in 4 countries (Brazil, India, the UK, and the U.S.) are thinking and feeling about life after COVID-19 — and especially where their trust lies in institutions, fellow citizens, and future public health emergencies. I listened in on a discussion of these findings on 10th March when Edelman released the findings in the report, The Unseen Impacts of COVID: a 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve pulled several slides from the report to share part of the plotline with you, and encourage you to read the entire report. As I write up these insights, I’ll speak “globally” about the four countries together, and then about the U.S. specifically.

First and foremost, we see that COVID decreased peoples’ ability to trust in institutions — generally government being the least-trusted (except for in India, where media are least trusted as an institution). COVID also eroded peoples’ trust in media . Business, in general, is the most-trusted across the institutions studied, albeit in India NGOs are less trusted and in the US, NGOs are tied with business (with 26% of people in the U.S. saying their trust in these two groups fell during the COVID era),

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we assume that “business” is the most trusted organizational type for addressing COVID-19 pandemic challenges, the most-trusted business in in fact “my employer” and not “all” businesses. The second chart illustrates this bifurcation: “my employer” garners trust in majority numbers across the four nations, whereas business in India in general ranks much higher in terms of trust-equity for pandemic handling compared with citizens in the U.S., UK, and Brazil.

One important insights into why citizens don’t trust business as much coming out of the five years of COVID is inflation: “COVID gave business an excuse to raise prices,” Edelman intuits in the results of a survey question asking whether people agreed with the statement, “Business used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices as people struggled to afford everyday items.” 6 in 10 consumers in the U.S. agreed with this sentiment, along with 66% of people in the UK, 57% of people in Brazil, and 69% of people in India. 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s pivot to science. For this theme, people living in the U.S. are outliers in terms of science skepticism.

62% of people in the U.S. said that due to the COVID pandemic, people in America are less likely to trust and abide by science. That percent falls to 43% in the UK, 44% in Brazil, and 20% in India.

Furthermore, 50% of U.S. residents told Edelman that since COVID, science was less respected by “my government.” Again, the U.S. health citizens are outliers on this question of government respecting science: that is 50% of people in the U.S. feeling that my government makes science less of a priority in its decision-making process due to the pandemic, compared with 41% in Brazil, 35% in the UK, and 20% in India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That science-chasm resulting out of the COVID experience helps us understand this next data point: that since COVID, peoples’ ability to trust in health authorities is more politically polarized.

Here, the big difference in U.S. health citizens’ views on trust in health authorities is very clear: 57% of people leaning right in the U.S. said their ability to trust in national health authorities decreased (with 24% saying trust increased, a 33 point delta); only 28% of those leaning left felt their trust in national health authorities fall due to the pandemic with a 20 percentage point positive delta in those whose trust in health authorities increased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  Those survey results paint a picture of how people feel “now,” with the survey being fielded in February 2025. We’ll focus on the U.S. data here in the Hot Points.

Let’s sort out the future prospects re-building on the eroded trust so many people in the U.S. feel with health institutions.

The red bars in this chart show the U.S. health citizens’ results on trust in an institution/organization to do what is right in the event of another pandemic. “Red” signals “distrust.” In the U.S., 49% of people trust the World Health Organization to do what is right in the event of a pandemic, 45% trust the U.S. health system, and 43% trust pharma companies. These trust levels are much lower than those in the other 3 countries studied.

How to remedy the trust chasm when it comes to the next pandemic?

Edelman learned that,

  • 57% of U.S. health citizens said it would be helpful to analyze what went wrong int he COVID-19 pandemic
  • 54% said to publish a plan for how the government would handle a pandemic
  • 56% of Americans said it would be helpful to fund research of treatments for viruses
  • 55% said it would be helpful to work with other countries to monitor emerging viruses, and,
  • 48% of people in the U.S. said it would be helpful to restrict pandemic misinformation on social media.

This is by far the lowest percent of a population saying it would be helpful to restrict misinformation on social media — which, in real-time during the session,  Richard Edelman said was, “of all the curses of COVID this is the most profound.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In light of these findings and the need to re-build the public’s trust back to pre-pandemic levels, Edelman recommends that experts and health care providers communicate science-based information to people. Experts and care providers were the top 2 sources health citizens cited as being most-trusted to provide accurate information about recommendations and updates in the event of a potential future pandemic.

I have another suggestion that could be helpful in the U.S., as more health citizens are taking on more personal responsibility and behaviors to benefit health for themselves and their families: collaborate with the retail health sector such as grocery stores with co-located pharmacies.

Here’s a good example to make my point: in Drug Store News published yesterday online, you can read an important interview with Dr. Marc Watkins, Chief Medical Officer with Kroger Health. Dr. Watkins talks about the measles outbreak and the importance of vaccinations in protecting the individual being vaccinated along with the larger community for herd immunity. In the U.S., pharmacists rank among the top-most-trusted professions for honest and ethics in the annual Gallup poll (more on that here in Health Populi).

In May 2021, Kroger launched a $5 million #CommunityImmunity campaign to incentivize people to get vaccinations among both their employee base and the communities the grocer serves. In March 2021, Kroger Health grew its vaccination capacity to one million doses a week. Of the accomplishment, Dr. Watkins said, “We are strongly encouraging all customers and our associates – who qualify for a one-time reward payment of $100 – to receive the first vaccine available to them at the earliest possible opportunity once they become eligible in their local health jurisdiction to curb the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.”

The Edelman COVID update meshes with yesterday’s Health Populi post covering ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Issues for 2025 — one challenge of which was the wide availability and viral spread of medical misinformation. ECRI asserts that, “If viral misinformation is the disease, health literacy is part of the cure….When healthcare professionals collaborate with patients, it leads to more informed decision-making and improved health outcomes.”  In addition to one’s personal physician, a retail pharmacist in a local grocery store or pharmacy chain can also be that front-line health care worker communicating the science-fact behind vaccines and medicines.

Given the virality of mis-information particularly about vaccines in the U.S., an all-hands-on-deck in the health care ecosystem will be required to address this challenge. The opportunity is for public-private collaborations to come together for rebuilding the eroding trust in institutions….channeling experts and clinicians through trusted community touchpoints.

Thanks to Edelman for continuing the Trust Barometer journey around the world, and especially in the U.S. at this moment.