University of Alabama.
Yale University.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2024 Jun 1;49(3):375-401. doi: 10.1215/03616878-11075562.
Public opinion on the performance of health system actors is polarized today, but it remains unclear which actors enjoy the most or the least trust among Democrats and Republicans, whether the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced how people view their own physicians, and whether doctors have retained the ability to influence public beliefs about policy issues.
The authors conducted two national surveys in 2022 and 2023 to examine these questions.
Democrats rated the performance of medical research scientists and public health experts during the pandemic more highly than did Republicans and independents. About three in ten Republicans said the pandemic decreased their trust in their personal doctors. Nonetheless, most Americans reported confidence in physicians. The authors replicated the findings of Gerber and colleagues (2014) to demonstrate that respondents continued to have more positive views of doctors than other professionals and that public opinion was responsive to cues from a doctors' group.
What polarizes Democrats and Republicans today is not the question of whether medical scientists and public health experts are competent but whether the advice offered by these actors is in the public interest and should guide policy makers' decisions. Democrats strongly believe the answer to these questions is yes, while Republicans exhibit skepticism.
如今，公众对医疗体系各行为体表现的看法两极分化，但仍不清楚在民主党人和共和党人当中，哪些行为体最受信任，哪些最不受信任；新冠疫情是否影响了人们对自己医生的看法；以及医生是否仍有能力影响公众对政策问题的看法。
作者在 2022 年和 2023 年进行了两次全国性调查，以探究这些问题。
民主党人对医学研究科学家和公共卫生专家在疫情期间表现的评价高于共和党人和独立人士。约三分之一的共和党人表示，疫情降低了他们对私人医生的信任。尽管如此，大多数美国人仍对医生表示信任。作者复制了 Gerber 及其同事（2014 年）的研究结果，表明受访者对医生的看法仍然比其他专业人士更为积极，而且公众意见对医生群体的暗示做出了回应。
如今使民主党人和共和党人产生分歧的，不是医学科学家和公共卫生专家是否有能力的问题，而是这些行为体提供的建议是否符合公众利益并应指导决策者的决策。民主党人强烈认为答案是肯定的，而共和党人则表示怀疑。
