About half of Americans (51%) say public health officials, such as those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have done an excellent or good job communicating with the public about the coronavirus outbreak. However, nearly as many (49%) say they have done an only fair or poor job. The CDC has received criticism for its COVID-19 response, prompting agency leadership to outline changes to the organisation.

Asked in more detail about the response of health officials over the course of the coronavirus outbreak, a lack of preparedness is among the sentiments that registers most strongly with Americans: 46% say the statement “public health officials were unprepared for the outbreak” describes their views extremely or very well. Notably, similar shares of Republicans and Democrats express this view.

Yet many Americans also feel public health officials have been hampered in their efforts to respond to the outbreak: 45% of U.S. adults say the statement “interference from elected officials hurt public health officials’ ability to respond to the outbreak” describes their views extremely or very well.

Other key findings include:

• Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. adults (71%) say they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, about the same as earlier this year. The share of U.S. adults who say they are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot within the past six months is down from 49% in May 2022 to 38% in the new survey.
• Looking ahead, among those who are fully vaccinated, about two-thirds say that they will probably get, or have already received, an updated COVID-19 booster shot designed to better protect against recent variants of the virus.
• With personal concern about getting a serious case of COVID-19 continuing to edge lower, 69% of Americans say new variants of the coronavirus will not have a major impact on the country’s efforts to contain the disease.