Trust in Health Agencies on Cancer Info Falls
A national survey finds public trust in cancer information from government agencies dropped after the COVID-19 pandemic, while trust in physicians held steady.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Cancer
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Trust in cancer information from government agencies fell from 75.9% before the pandemic to 71.7% afterward, according to a study using the National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey of 17,252 respondents. Trust in physicians, which was 95.7% before the pandemic, did not significantly change over time.
Why it matters
The decline suggests that public confidence in official health sources weakened during and after the pandemic, while personal relationships with physicians remained a stable source of trust. Researchers interpret the drop as a shift in how Americans evaluate health communication.
The survey covered 17,252 respondents, and trust in government agencies declined significantly among white individuals, men, adults aged 18 to 34, metropolitan residents, and people without a cancer history. A separate national survey of more than 400,000 U.S. adults found the share with a lot of trust in physicians and hospitals fell more than 30 percentage points from 2020 to 2024, though the reasons for that broader decline are not detailed in the extraction.
The players
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is the federal agency within the National Institutes of Health that leads U.S. government research on cancer and runs the Health Information National Trends Survey.
Todd Burus
Todd Burus is a researcher at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine who led the study of cancer information trust.
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is the United Nations agency responsible for international public health, which officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic over in early 2023.
The details
Researchers used the National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey to compare trust in cancer information across prepandemic, early-pandemic, late-pandemic and postpandemic periods. The lead researcher, Todd Burus of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and colleagues found the decline in government agency trust was concentrated among several demographic groups.
Timeline
Prepandemic: baseline period against which trust levels were measured.
Early 2023: the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic over.
2020 to 2024: trust in physicians and hospitals fell more than 30 percentage points in a separate national survey.
Health Landscape
The findings extend a pattern documented through the NCI's Health Information National Trends Survey, which tracks how Americans seek and trust cancer information over time. The study places the post-pandemic erosion of trust in government agencies within that longitudinal record, while physician trust remained comparatively durable.
Patients who rely on government health agencies for cancer information may weigh physician guidance more heavily, since trust in doctors held steady. The findings suggest that discussing screening and treatment questions with a personal physician remains a stable channel for accurate cancer information.
The takeaway
Trust in cancer information is not uniform: it erodes for government sources while remaining anchored in personal doctor relationships. Readers seeking reliable cancer guidance may find physicians a steadier starting point than official agency messaging.
Further reading
Explore more on Cancer to see how public trust shapes screening and treatment decisions.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Healio.
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