During a public health emergency, who do people trust to deliver accurate, life-saving
information 鈥 politicians, the press, the government?
How about their employer, according to a new report from鈥, which examines what sources of information people most relied on during the COVID-19
pandemic. The work is based on interviews conducted with business leaders about how
they managed COVID and what information they trusted and shared.
鈥淭his pioneering study explores the communication needs and responses of corporate
America during what was, for most, their first experience with an infectious disease
outbreak of both domestic and global proportions,鈥欌 said , professor, and lead author of the report.
Dr. Claudia Parvanta
鈥淭rusted Sources: How Some U.S. Employers Used Government Information During the COVID-19
Pandemic,鈥 appeared in the .
In a national study of major employers, the authors found that most companies used
information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 鈭 a part of CDC 鈭 and
the World Health Organization (WHO) to guide COVID mitigation efforts.
鈥淲e found that the employers we interviewed generally sought out health information,
interpreted it, tailored it for their workers, and disseminated it in a repeating
cycle,鈥欌 Parvanta explained. 鈥淏ecause more than half of the U.S. population is employed,
employers are a ready-made constellation for rapidly disseminating information to
the families and communities of the workforce.鈥欌
During COVID, employers relied on government sources 鈭 primarily the CDC 鈭 to guide
policy decisions, with 25 of 28 companies in one study using federal, state, and local
health agency guidance to shape workplace safety. Employers frequently adapted this
information for their communications and sought additional expert interpretation for
industry-specific applications.
Employers want this industry-tailored information during a public health emergency
but providing it remains a challenge, the study found. For instance, employers highlighted
the difficulty of making high-stakes decisions based on rapidly evolving information
that may have conflicted with state or local authorities while trying to adapt guidelines
to their specific business contexts.鈥
Many people working for large companies depended almost exclusively on their employers
for the latest COVID news 鈭 rather than the media or government 鈭 and how to react
about the epidemic through such measures as wearing masks, quarantines and vaccinations.
Consistent advice by company leadership led to a level of trust, and less disruption
in productivity.
But public skepticism has deepened with federal cuts in health and science budgets
and staff reductions, particularly at the CDC. Because these measures can lead to
polarized information, many people were confused over what advice to follow about
COVID.
鈥淭he public has heard repeatedly about a loss of trust in our nation's scientific
agencies,鈥欌 the report said. 鈥淭hose in positions of authority in industry gained an
improved appreciation for and trust in the information provided by the CDC in contrast
to what has been reported for the public. While scientific agencies have been decimated,
industry and professional associations may remind workers that they rely on science
to do their jobs every day.鈥欌
Employers took the COVID threat very seriously about creating a safe workplace. They did everything that was recommended to them ... and we found that employers aren't skeptical of science.
Dr. Claudia Parvanta
Taylor Dinehart, research associate with USF鈥檚 , got involved in the project as part of her masters of public health, analyzing interviews with leaders across different industries. That work helped her understand how a workplace can be a powerful environment for influencing health decisions, and how it makes information usable and actionable.
Taylor Dinehart, research associate with USF鈥檚 Center for Urban Transportation Research.
鈥淥ne of the biggest takeaways was that employers weren鈥檛 just sharing information,
they were shaping behavior in real time,鈥欌 Dinehart said. 鈥淭hrough policies, leadership
messaging, and day-to-day communication, workplaces became a primary channel for public
health response.鈥欌
The study concluded that employers represent a critical communication infrastructure
that could be shared as a public health partner in the future.
鈥淛ust as we wouldn't want a non-expert friend to build a bridge or run diagnostics
on our cars, we need to listen to bona fide scientists about health,鈥欌 Parvanta wrote
in the report. 鈥淐ompany leaders never lost that belief and perhaps they can lead the
public back to better science and health literacy.鈥欌