Trust in federal health leadership is failing under RFK Jr., new poll finds

Most of the American public does not approve of the way Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running the nation’s health agencies, according to a new KFF poll, and there’s an erosion of trust in reliable vaccine information from the federal government in particular.

Nearly 6 in 10 adults in the United States say they disapprove of Kennedy’s overall job performance as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, KFF found.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to disapprove of Kennedy overall – 87% versus 26% – but there’s division even within Kennedy’s signature Make America Healthy Again movement, which is mostly composed of Republicans.

Overall, about 4 in 10 adults say they consider themselves supporters of the MAHA movement, according to the KFF survey. But even within the movement, about 30% say they disapprove of the way Kennedy is handling his role as HHS secretary.

And public trust in the CDC is now the lowest it’s been since the Covid-19 pandemic began, according to KFF. Only half of adults in the US say they trust the agency to provide reliable vaccine information, down from 57% in July and 63% in September 2024. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to trust the CDC, but trust even among Democrats has dropped significantly – tumbling 24 percentage points since 2023.