How much do we trust doctors and nurses during the pandemic? Here’s what a poll finds

A majority of Americans have trust in doctors, nurses and pharmacists “to do what is right” for them and their families, according to a new poll.

A survey released Tuesday from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that at least 7 in 10 respondents trust nurses, doctors and pharmacists “almost all of the time” or “most of the time.”

The poll was conducted June 10-14 with a sample of 1,071 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

The survey found that 79 percent of people said they trust nurses almost always or “most of the time,” while 75% said the same for pharmacists, 70% said that for doctors, and 22% said the same for hospital executives.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they’ve never worked in health care, while 15% previously worked in health care and 10% work in the field.

A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted June 8-21 with a sample of 1,888 adults also found that more Americans trust their doctors about information on the COVID-19 vaccine over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and officials including President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The survey found that 83% of Americans said they “trust their own doctor a great deal or a fair amount” and 85% said the same about their kid’s pediatrician. Seventy-two percent of workers said they trust their employer for vaccine information, 71% said they trust the CDC, 69% said they trust the Food and Drug Administration, 58% said they trust Biden, and 57% said they trust Fauci.

“Public health officials should really look to doctors, nurses and pharmacists to be the megaphone to deliver the message of the importance of getting vaccinated,” said Michelle Strollo, a senior vice president in NORC’s Health Research Group, according to the Associated Press.

Cardiologist Paul Vaitkus, who recently retired, said he urged his patients to get the COVID-19 vaccine and thinks that they listened, the publication reported.

The poll comes as COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the country, fueled by vaccine hesitancy and the delta variant, which was discovered in India and is now the dominant strain in the U.S.

COVID-19 cases across the U.S. have risen 118% in the past two weeks, and hospitalizations have increased 87% over that same period as of Aug. 10, according to The New York Times.

More than 195 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for 58.8% of the population, as of Aug. 9, according to the CDC. At least 166 million eligible people are fully vaccinated.

The U.S. has had more than 35 million coronavirus cases and 617,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data as of Aug. 10.

This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 2:55 PM with the headline "How much do we trust doctors and nurses during the pandemic? Here’s what a poll finds."