Poll: Trust in federal health agencies dropped sharply during Trump’s first year

A year into the second Trump administration, trust in federal health institutions, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in particular, has declined considerably while also becoming deeply partisan, according to a new poll.

The poll, conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Listening Lab, found only 50 percent of the public says they trust health recommendations from the CDC, down from 77 percent in spring 2025.

At the same time, state and local health departments are now substantially more trusted than federal agencies, even as the public trust in those institutions also declined. Between 2025 and 2026, trust in state public health agencies dropped from 80 percent to 66 percent, while trust in local public health agencies dropped from 82 percent to 70 percent.

The decline in trust is being driven by partisanship, the poll found. Only 34 percent of Democrats said they trust CDC recommendations, a massive drop from 92 percent in 2025.

Among Independents, trust in the CDC dropped from 77 percent to 47 percent. Among Republicans, trust in the CDC increased very slightly from 63 percent to 67 percent.

Brian C. Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, said the increasing partisanship around public health and science is alarming, because it means that people’s perspectives on health information are now dictated by the party in charge.

“Health information shouldn’t bend to elections,” Castrucci said. “If we’re in a nation where red states believe CDC and blue states don’t, or vice versa, it will make it near impossible for us to confront outbreaks and national health challenges. It would be tantamount to having half the states believe that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and half the states believing it was misinformation.”

The poll comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to try to put his mark on health agency policy about food and vaccines, two of the major pillars of his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.

The poll did not ask the public’s views about Kennedy specifically, but rather about the actions of health agencies in the past year. A 55 percent majority said they disapprove of federal public health agencies’ actions in the past year.

There was a hard partisan breakdown to that question, with 86 percent of Democrats saying they disapprove, but only one in five Republicans.

Top public concerns include a 68 percent agreement that agency recommendations were too influenced by leaders’ personal beliefs. A similar number said agencies were focused too much on the wrong priorities.

About six in ten agreed with statements that agencies have cut or scaled back programs too much, made too many decisions without following standard processes, and cut or scaled back government funding for health or medical research too much.

On vaccines, the poll found there is still strong majority support for routine childhood vaccination requirements.

More than three-quarters of the public, including majorities of both parties, said that parents should be required to vaccinate their children in order to attend school, which has been nearly the same since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poll also found a majority of Americans opposed changing the childhood vaccination schedule, though there was some notable softening of underlying support for vaccines.

Overall, 89 percent said childhood vaccines were either very safe or somewhat safe. But that percentage was a drop from 94 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022.

“I think we are overstating the country’s reticence to vaccination. However, we’re seeing erosion, and that’s the scary part,” Castrucci said.

Food policy continues to be of the more popular MAHA initiatives.

According to the poll, 60 percent of Americans support the recent changes to the food pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

On specific measures included in the new Dietary Guidelines, 90 percent said they agreed with a recommendation to avoid or sharply limit sugar and highly-processed food, while 85 percent agreed with recommendations to increase protein intake.

The poll was conducted from March 19 to April 1, 2026, among a sample of 2,205 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.