Trust in government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eroded in recent months, according to a poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, told Cheddar the drop stems from the politicization of public health during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Repeatedly during this crisis, we've seen instances where the political sector has reached in and changed public health guidance from CDC," he said. "That is a real problem."
Indeed, House Democrats are currently investigating whether the Trump administration pressured CDC officials to alter or delay information on the coronavirus.
Besser said one challenge for the CDC is that it doesn't often speak with the public directly.
"There's incredibly important information coming out from the CDC every single day," he said. "Unfortunately the CDC is not in a position where they're talking to the public through the media every day to be able to lift up that information."
Once that information is politically influenced, he added, "then people have to pick and choose and say 'well is this a guidance that's science-based, or is this one that's politically based?'"
Bessner described trust as one of the CDC's most important tools because early on in a crisis the agency depends on people following the advice of experts despite considerable uncertainty.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its 2023 Spring outlook and the ongoing trend of unseasonable weather could be continuing.
Adam Bry, co-founder and CEO of drone manufacturer Skydio, joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's latest funding round and the Russia-US drone collision.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voiced support for the city's reparations committee's recommendation to pay eligible Black adult residents $5 million
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday evening said its long-awaited digital payment system, the FedNow Service, will start operating in July. The service is designed to provide a national platform for financial institutions to settle payments in real-time and at lower cost. That could include large banks, payment processors, and the U.S. Treasury.
A week after the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to tell the Senate Finance Committee that the nation's banking system “remains sound” and Americans "can feel confident” about their deposits.
A federal judge in Texas raised questions Wednesday about a Christian group's effort to overturn the decades-old U.S. approval of a leading abortion drug, in a case that could threaten the country's most common method for ending pregnancies.
Texas Rep. Greg Casar spoke with Cheddar News to give his thoughts on abortion rights and union protection.
Texas officials have announced a takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student school district.
A federal judge will hear arguments Wednesday in a high-stakes court case that could threaten access to medication abortion and blunt the authority of U.S. drug regulators.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell should be very cautious when deciding to raise interest rates or he risks another bank crisis, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif. 8th District) told Cheddar News.
