Assessing the Institutional Trustworthiness of Public Health Agencies
George Barimah
6 February 2025
Public health information in the public domain is not only provided by individual experts but also by Public Health Agencies (PHAs). PHAs such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) are institutional bodies that provide health-related scientific information to policy makers and to the public. What are the markers of trustworthiness for these important public institutions?
Philosophers of science have debated the nature of scientific knowledge in research collaborations and research groups (Wray, 2007; Wilholt, 2016; Kukla, 2012; Rolin, 2008) and the recommendations of expert committees (Gundersen and Holst, 2022; Carrier and Krohn, 2018) as scientific testifiers providing scientific information to inform policy decisions. However, the trustworthiness of PHAs and their recommendations have not received sufficient attention. This paper is an effort to contribute to this area by applying the criteria suggested by Gundersen and Holst (2022) for assessing the trustworthiness of temporary science advisory committees to PHAs.
