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By Alex Hogan
Sept. 21, 2026
Senior Multimedia Producer
Alex Hogan
Alex Hogan is STAT’s senior multimedia producer and host of STATus Report, STAT’s weekly video series. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Public trust in science, and in health institutions in particular, has been in decline for years. 
On one hand, disinformation and cultural shifts have led people to lose faith in medicine and institutions that are critical for individual and public health. On the other hand, it is not hard to find examples of institutions that have lost the public’s trust for good reason. For nearly 11 years here at STAT, our journalists have been doggedly reporting on misdeeds, scandals, and crimes perpetrated by some of the biggest companies and names in the U.S. health care system. 
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Understanding the importance of trust while recognizing that distrust is not irrational either is central to our work here at STAT. For that reason, we have recently brought on journalist Nicholas Florko as our first-ever trust-in-science reporter. 
“My goal is really to get to the bottom of why people distrust science, the forces behind it, and what we can do to hopefully build up some trust in science where needed,” he told me in a recent conversation.
In this first STATus Report after our summer hiatus, Florko joins me to discuss the importance of trust and how he’s approaching this brand-new beat.
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Alex Hogan
Senior Multimedia Producer
Alex Hogan is STAT’s senior multimedia producer and host of STATus Report, STAT’s weekly video series. You can follow him on Bluesky.
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