This is the sixth in an eight-part series on restoring trust in public health: Lessons from COVID-19

Four years of the Biden-Harris administration has left Americans rightly skeptical of public health institutions.

The House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic found that federal masking policies were often arbitrary and without sufficient scientific justification.

The shifting guidance was unaccompanied by clear science-based explanations for the radical shifts.

The result was widespread confusion and erosion of public trust.

Federal officials apparently ignored scientific evidence undercutting the government’s position.

For example, CDC relied upon a Missouri study that focused on two COVID-19 -positive hairstylists wearing masks and serving 139 customers with no control group.

Such policies deviated sharply from international public health guidelines warning against the masking of young children during the pandemic.