We conducted a longitidinal assessment of 806 respondents in March, 2020 in the US to examine the trustworthiness of sources of information about COVID-19. Respondents were recontacted after four months. Information sources included mainstream media, state health departments, the CDC, the White House, and a well-known university. We also examined how demographics, political partisanship, and skepticism about COVID-19 were associated with the perceived trustworthiness of information sources and decreased trustworthiness over time. At baseline, the majority of respondants reported high trust in COVID-19 information from state health departments (75.6%), the CDC (80.9%), and a university (Johns Hopkins, 81.1%). Mainstream media was trusted by less than half the respondents (41.2%), and the White House was the least trusted source (30.9%). At the 4-month follow-up, a significant decrease in trustworthiness in all five sources of COVID-19 information was observed. The most pronounced reductions were from the CDC and the White House. In multivariate analyses, factors associated with rating the CDC, state health department, and a university as trustworthy sources of COVID-19 information were political party affiliation, level of education, and skepticism about COVID-19. The most consistent predictor of decreased trust was political party affiliation, with Democrats as compared to Republicans less likely to report decreased trust across all sources.

我们于 2020 年 3 月在美国对 806 名受访者进行了纵向评估，以检查有关 COVID-19 的信息来源的可信度。四个月后重新联系了受访者。信息来源包括主流媒体、州卫生部门、疾控中心、白宫和知名大学。我们还研究了人口统计、政治党派偏见和对 COVID-19 的怀疑与信息来源的感知可信度以及随着时间的推移可信度降低之间的关系。在基线时，大多数受访者表示高度信任来自州卫生部门 (75.6%)、CDC (80.9%) 和大学 (约翰霍普金斯大学，81.1%) 的 COVID-19 信息。不到一半的受访者（41.2%）信任主流媒体，白宫是最不信任的来源（30.9%）。在 4 个月的随访中，观察到所有五个 COVID-19 信息来源的可信度显着下降。最明显的削减来自疾病预防控制中心和白宫。在多变量分析中，与将 CDC、州卫生部门和大学评为 COVID-19 信息的可靠来源相关的因素是政党隶属关系、教育水平和对 COVID-19 的怀疑态度。信任度下降的最一致预测因素是政党从属关系，与共和党人相比，民主党人不太可能报告所有来源的信任度下降。将 CDC、州卫生部门和大学评为 COVID-19 信息的可靠来源的相关因素包括政党隶属关系、教育水平以及对 COVID-19 的怀疑态度。信任度下降的最一致预测因素是政党从属关系，与共和党人相比，民主党人不太可能报告所有来源的信任度下降。将 CDC、州卫生部门和大学评为 COVID-19 信息的可靠来源的相关因素包括政党隶属关系、教育水平以及对 COVID-19 的怀疑态度。信任度下降的最一致预测因素是政党从属关系，与共和党人相比，民主党人不太可能报告所有来源的信任度下降。