The Relevance and Operations of Political Trust in the COVID‐19 Pandemic

As the United States is at historic lows of trust in government, various agencies are seeking to convince members of the public to take key protective actions and to support novel policy actions intended to reduce the spread of COVID‐19. This article assesses the status of trust in key organizations relevant to pandemic information based on a national survey of residents of the United States. First, the article illustrates the variations in trust placed in various agencies—local to global agencies and governmental and private sector organizations. Second, the analysis reveals considerable variances in trust in specific organizations based on party identification. Finally, the results indicate that trust is important as it is related to the intention to adopt personal protective actions and support for key public policies.