Public support for doctors and nurses has tanked in recent years, especially among conservatives, as the sector has been bashed for wokery in everything from masking to doling out puberty blockers to kids.
The share of Americans who rate doctors’ ethical standards highly has dropped from 77 percent at the start of the pandemic in 2020 to 62 percent at the end of 2022 — an unusually steep 15-point fall over two years, says Gallup.
Nurses — and even pharmacists — have also seen their approval ratings nosedive. They’re all still far ahead of other professions, such as lawyers, bankers, and accountants, but the decline is stark and worrying.
Discontent is especially acute among Republicans, and comes as ever-more parts of society are sucked into the culture wars that are making America a more divided and perhaps even less stable nation.
