About TRUST in Public Health | Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

Strengthening trust in public health preparedness and response is critical for improving the United States’ capacity to prevent and withstand future public health emergencies. The spread of misleading rumors, misinformation, and disinformation complicates trust-building efforts and can promote narratives that make it difficult to respond effectively to public health events. To tackle this problem, the public health community must improve how public health systems operate, communicate, and function to improve public trust.

This project seeks to understand:

How can practitioners increase public trust in PHEPR during health emergencies, when misinformation is abundant and persistent?

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security conducted an evidence-informed project to answer this question by:

This website aims to provide practitioners with tools, resources, and guidance to proactively tackle rumors and address misinformation, as well as understand and strengthen trust in PHEPR. Ultimately, this would result in better risk communication, more trust in PHEPR, and greater resilience to misinformation during future public health emergencies.

Curious about the recommendations that have emerged from the findings of this work?

Read the recommendations

Wondering how the different elements of this work fit together?

Learn about the conceptual framework

The project team is grateful for the contributions of team members, working group members, and the funder.

Learn more about the team

The TRUST in Public Health project team welcomes your feedback. We are happy to present this work and to train members of your organization in using these resources.

For feedback and inquiries, please email centerhealthsecurity@jhu.edu.

About the project