Table 2.
Numbers of participants who trust each information source (N=1243), n (%). Trust was defined as binary (trust vs no trust) regarding providing accurate information about COVID-19.
| Domain and information sources | Trust by total samplea | Trust by age groupb (years) |
Trust by race |
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
<25 | 25-40 | 41-50 | 51-64 | ≥65 | White | Non-White | |||
| Government sources | ||||||||||||
|
|
CDCc and FDAd | 874 (70.3) | 99 (64.7) | 298 (64.8) | 142 (75.1) | 222 (79.0) | 111 (75.5) | 645 (72.2) | 229 (65.6) | |||
|
|
Local health department | 792 (63.7) | 81 (52.9) | 280 (60.0) | 129 (68.3) | 195 (69.4) | 105 (71.4) | 574 (64.2) | 218 (62.5) | |||
|
|
WHOf | 736 (59.2) | 93 (60.8) | 269 (57.6) | 113 (59.8) | 177 (63.0) | 82 (55.8) | 529 (59.2) | 207 (59.3) | |||
|
|
White House | 569 (45.8) | 65 (42.5) | 205 (43.9) | 94 (49.7) | 134 (47.7) | 69 (46.9) | 426 (47.7) | 143 (41.0) | |||
|
|
Other | 196(15.8) | 18 (11.8) | 91 (19.5) | 32 (16.9) | 36 (12.8) | 18 (12.2) | 131 (14.7) | 65 (18.6) | |||
| Private sources | ||||||||||||
|
|
CNN | 577 (46.4) | 64 (42.8) | 229 (49.0) | 88 (46.6) | 133 (47.3) | 60 (40.8) | 389 (43.5) | 188 (53.9) | |||
| FOX | 534 (42.9) | 63 (41.1) | 201 (43.0) | 90 (47.6) | 122 (43.4) | 57 (38.8) | 392 (43.9) | 142 (40.7) | ||||
| New York Times | 523 (42.0) | 70 (45.8) | 208 (44.5) | 81 (42.9) | 105 (37.4) | 55 (37.4) | 352 (39.4) | 171 (49.0) | ||||
| MSNBC | 515 (41.4) | 56 (36.7) | 204 (43.7) | 89 (47.1) | 108 (38.4) | 55 (37.4) | 346 (38.7) | 169 (48.4) | ||||
| Reuters | 391 (31.5) | 37 (24.2) | 151 (32.3) | 64 (33.9) | 89 (31.7) | 49 (33.3) | 272 (30.4) | 119 (34.1) | ||||
| The Hill | 273 (22.0) | 37 (24.2) | 129 (27.6) | 44 (23.3) | 43 (15.3) | 19 (12.9) | 179 (20.0) | 94 (26.9) | ||||
| Other | 221 (17.8) | 20 (13.0) | 96 (20.6) | 35 (18.5) | 49 (17.4) | 20 (13.6) | 158 (17.7) | 63 (18.1) | ||||
| Social networks | ||||||||||||
|
|
335 (27.0) | 335 (27.0) | 38 (24.8) | 161 (34.5) | 62 (32.8) | 60 (21.4) | 226 (25.3) | 109 (31.2) | ||||
| 290 (23.3) | 290 (23.3) | 44 (28.8) | 140 (30.0) | 51 (27.0) | 39 (13.9) | 189 (21.1) | 101 (28.9) | |||||
| Other | 115 (9.3) | 115 (9.3) | 14 (9.2) | 58 (12.7) | 24 (12.7) | 14 (5.0) | 73 (8.2) | 42 (12.0) | ||||
aPercentages were calculated as the ratio of people who rated the source as trusted to the total sample size.
bPercentages for age and race were calculated as the ratio of people who rated the source as trusted to the sample size of each subgroup.
cCDC: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
dFDA: US Food and Drug Administration.
eItalics highlight the subgroups in which the percentages of people who trusted the source were equal to or greater than that of the total sample.
fWHO: World Health Organization.