Trust in public health in the United States has been steadily declining since the Covid-19 pandemic, and President Donald Trump and his administration face an American public that’s deeply divided on the issue, polls show.
This week, Robert F. Kennedy – Trump’s highly controversial pick to lead public health agencies for the country as head of the US Department of Health and Human Services – faces members of Congress for his confirmation hearings. A new poll shows that less than half of US adults trust Trump and Kennedy to make the right recommendations on health issues, but views are split heavily along partisan lines – particularly regarding attitudes on vaccines, which have become a key concern surrounding Kennedy’s nomination.
Overall, while Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to express trust in federal health agencies, much larger shares of Republicans say they trust Trump and his nominees to oversee these agencies, according to survey data published Tuesday by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization.
Separating the agency and its leaders
Trust in government health agencies has fallen sharply in recent years. Only about half of US adults have favorable views of the US Food and Drug Administration, KFF found, down from nearly two-thirds who said the same in mid-2023. Trust in state and local public health officials fell about 10 percentage points in that same time, from 64% in June 2023 to 54% this month. Trust in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also dipped, from 66% to 61%.
But Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to say they trust the CDC – about 85% compared with 39%, according to KFF survey data – and similar partisan gaps hold true for views on other government health agencies.
Just over half of US adults say they trust HHS a “great deal” or a “fair amount” to make the right recommendations around health, according to KFF, but that’s split among 73% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans.
However, Republicans are nearly as likely to trust Trump and Kennedy as much as they do their own doctors, the survey found. A broad majority of Republicans – more than 80% – have favorable views, compared with just over 40% of Democrats, according to KFF.
Vaccine skepticism
Kennedy’s views on vaccines have raised alarm among public health experts, including his push of the false claim that vaccines cause autism in children.
Ahead of his confirmation hearings, the American Academy of Pediatrics collected dozens of testimonials to emphasize the important role that vaccines play in the long-term health and well-being of children.
“As our elected leaders consider nominees who will shape our nation’s public health landscape, pediatricians are speaking up on behalf of children across the country who rely on vaccines to stay safe and healthy,” Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.
“Pediatricians see firsthand the community benefits of immunization. We’ve heard from our members across the country, in rural communities and urban areas, who work in small practices and who are part of large institutions,” she said. “One unifying theme of these stories: vaccines allow children to grow up healthy and thrive.”
The KFF survey shows that the vast majority of US adults still believe that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks, but trust has been eroding over the past year and a half, especially among Republican parents.
About 8 in 10 parents say they keep their child up to date with recommended childhood vaccines, such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine – but that share has fallen from about 9 in 10 since 2023. About 1 in 6 (17%) now report delaying or skipping some shots, up from 10% in 2023. The shift is most pronounced among Republican parents: About 1 in 4 (26%) now report skipping or delaying some vaccines for their children, up from 13% in 2023.
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Some of that change may be attributable to the false claim about links between the MMR vaccine and autism, the KFF poll suggests.
About two-thirds of US adults and parents say they have heard the claim, and the KFF survey found a mix of opinions on it. A very small share – about 3% – say the claim is “definitely true,” but only a third say it is “definitely false.” Another 20% say it is “probably true,” while the remaining 41% say it is “probably false.”
Parents who lean toward believing the false claim about the link between the MMR vaccine and autism are more likely to say they have delayed or skipped some vaccines for their children than parents who say it is false.
The KFF survey is based on a nationally representative sample of about 1,300 adults in the US who were surveyed during the second week of January.