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Abstract What were the impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on trust in public health information, and what can be done to rebuild trust in public health authorities? This essay synthesizes insights from science and technology studies, information studies, and bioethics to explore sociotechnical factors that may have contributed to the breakdown of trust in public health information during the Covid‐19 pandemic. The field of science and technology studies lays out the dynamic nature of facts, helping to explain rapid shifts in public health messaging during Covid‐19 and reasons they produced a lack of trust in public health authorities. The information field looks at how facts are sociotechnically constructed through systems of classification, illustrating how extrascientific factors influence public health authorities. Putting these perspectives alongside bioethics principles raises additional factors to consider. The goal of this essay is to learn from past failures to point toward a brighter future where trust in public health authorities can be rebuilt, not on faith, but rather through striving for calibrated trust within which, through a virtuous circle, trust is validated. 

Vulnerable populations (e.g., older adults) can be hard to reach online. During a pandemic like COVID-19 when much research data collection must be conducted online only, these populations risk being further underrepresented. This paper explores methodological strategies for rigorous, efficient survey research with a large number of older adults online, focusing on (1) the design of a survey instrument both comprehensible and usable by older adults, (2) rapid collection (within hours) of data from a large number of older adults, and (3) validation of data using attention checks, independent validation of age, and detection of careless responses to ensure data quality. These methodological strategies have important implications for the inclusion of older adults in online research.