Republicans twice as likely to trust RFK Jr. than FDA, CDC on health advice, poll finds

When it comes to getting reliable health advice, Americans could scarcely be more divided, new polling shows.

While most Democrats trust government agencies for health recommendations, a majority of Republicans instead trust President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

This partisan divide is underpinned by a general decline in trust towards government health agencies, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poll was released on Jan. 28, the same day that Kennedy — Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) — was on Capitol Hill for his Senate confirmation hearing. A former independent candidate for president, Kennedy has long railed against the health agencies he now seeks to oversee, accusing them of corruption and failing to end the “chronic disease epidemic.”

Conducted between Jan. 7 and 14, the poll sampled 1,310 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Agencies vs. politicians

Respondents were given a list of 10 organizations and individuals, and asked whether or not they trust them to “make the right recommendations when it comes to health issues.”

Personal doctors were the most trusted, with the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats — 84% and 92% — expressing a great deal or fair amount of trust. But, from there, the answers were skewed significantly based on partisanship.

Large majorities of Democrats expressed trust in five federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — 85% — and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — 71%.

Meanwhile, half of Republicans or less signaled confidence in these agencies, with just 39% saying they trust advice from the CDC and the FDA.

Republicans, on the other hand, were twice as likely to trust Trump (84%), Kennedy (81%), and Mehmet Oz (83%) — who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services. Less than 20% of Democrats trusted these individuals.

Eroding trust in health agencies, dip in vaccination rate

Public trust in information provided by health agencies has eroded over the past 18 months — continuing a trend that began in 2020.

Slightly over half of respondents, 53%, said they trust the FDA at least a fair amount, which is down 12 points from June 2023. Similarly, 54% now say they trust state and local health officials, marking a 10-point drop from June 2023.

Meanwhile, trust in health advice from the CDC only fell 5 points — from 66% to 61%.

The poll also asked parents with children under 18 if they typically keep them “up to date with recommended childhood vaccines such as the MMR vaccine” or if they have delayed or skipped some.

The vast majority of parents, 82%, said their child or children are normally up to date with recommended vaccines — which is down 8 points from 2023.

In contrast, 17% said they have delayed or skipped some vaccines for their children — marking a 10-point increase from 2023.

This trend away from vaccination is strongest among Republican parents, 26% of whom reported skipping some shots, which is double the share from 2023.

This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Republicans twice as likely to trust RFK Jr. than FDA, CDC on health advice, poll finds."