Americans' confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken a nose dive, shaken by the agency's handling of Ebola cases in the United States,
a CBS News Poll finds.
The survey, taken this week, found only 37 percent of respondents said the CDC is doing an excellent or good job, while 60 percent rated it as fair or poor.
The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The disdain sinks the agency to the basement-level position of the IRS,
The Washington Post notes.
For example,
a Gallup poll in May 2013 found the positive rating of the IRS was a dismal 27 percent, while 42 percent of respondents said the agency was doing a poor job.
The same poll found 60 percent of Americans rated the CDC as "excellent/good" while a total 35 percent rated it "fair" or "poor" – the highest out of nine governmental agencies tested – an almost exact reverse of the latest CBC News survey results.
In the new CBS News survey, of the nine government agencies tested, just one, the FBI, received a positive rating from more than half of Americans.
The three branches of the federal government ranked among the bottom of a list of institutions the public has confidence in, the poll noted.
At the top of the list with 73 percent of respondents expressing a "great deal/quite a lot" of confidence, was the U.S. military.
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