Americans have continued to lose trust in scientists after the advent of controversial lockdowns and public health mandates, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center.

Some 73% of Americans in 2023 have either a “fair amount” or a “great deal” of trust in scientists to “act in the best interests of the public,” marking a significant decline from 86% in 2019. The percentage of Americans who specifically have a “great deal of confidence” in scientists decreased from 39% in 2020 to 23% in 2023.

Even as 57% of respondents believe that science has had a “mostly positive effect” on society, as many as 34% say the disciplines have had an “equally positive and negative” impact. Another 8% currently believe science has a “mostly negative” effect.

Republicans express significantly more distrust in science relative to Democrats: the share of the former group believing that science has a positive impact decreased from 70% in 2019 to 47% in 2023, while the share in the latter believing in the positive impact of science has decreased from 77% to 69% over the same time horizon.

The distrust in scientists and scientific institutions comes after mixed messaging on public health protocol, lockdowns which throttled the economy and education system, and vaccine mandates from corporations and various government agencies. Republicans have been particularly critical of apparent leftist ideological capture in scientific organizations.

The value of masking to prevent viral spread was debated for months within federal health agencies at the beginning of 2020. Emails also revealed that Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sought to discourage the belief that the virus originated as a lab leak from gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci had argued that the virus likely spread from bats to humans.

Progressive activists have slowly started to avoid “trust the science” as a public policy slogan due to the increasing number of skeptical Americans concerned about individuals in the sector.

"The slogan has power because of course science matters, and of course we should follow it. But solely relying on science to guide public health decisions misses the complexity of policy deliberations,” CNN medical analyst and former Planned Parenthood director Leana Wen wrote in an opinion piece earlier this year. “The tragic paradox is that it fuels distrust in the scientific community and undermines the credibility of health officials.”