There’s nothing like a good crisis to eat at a government agency’s approval rating.
Amid the Ebola crisis that has launched the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director onto practically every morning news show imaginable, the government agency has seen a sharp decline in its positive assessment among Americans.
According to a recently released CBS News poll, 37 percent of Americans currently rate the CDC as “excellent” or “good,” while a whopping 60 percent label it “fair” or “poor.”
This is a sharp cry from the agency’s positive rating in May 2013, according to a Gallup poll conducted then. While 60 percent of respondents rated the CDC’s job as “excellent” or “good,” a mere eight percent labeled the agency “poor” and 27 percent called it “fair.”
In the 2013 poll, the CDC actually held the top spot out of nine government agencies in terms of positive assessment.
The only thing the agency can rejoice over is the fact that it is still more well-liked the Internal Revenue Service, at least slightly. Only 31 percent of respondents in the CBS poll rated the IRS “excellent” or “good,” and 65 percent called it “fair” or “poor.” The Food and Drug Administration and the Veterans Administration also finished below the CDC.
But that’s like beating the three slowest kids in a gym class race.
Thus far, there have been three cases of Ebola diagnosed on American soil. The first individual to be diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. died on October 8.
