health care technology

The decline in public trust in U.S. government health agencies that began during the pandemic continues as the nation transitions to a new administration and Congress. Although large shares of adults continue to trust their own doctors to make the right recommendations when it comes to health issues, this number also has decreased.

According to the KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust:

  • Sixty-one percent trust the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to make the right recommendations on health, down slightly from 66% in June 2023.
  • Trust in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state and local public health officials each dropped by double digits (from 65% to 53% and 64% to 54%, respectively).
  • Individual doctors remain the most trusted source of health information, although the share saying they trust their own doctor “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to make the right health recommendations also declined from 93% to 85% over the same period.
The partisan divide in trust in government health agencies that emerged during the pandemic remain. Democrats are about 30 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they trust the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to make the right recommendations on health (73% vs. 42%). Similar partisan gaps exist in agencies that fall under HHS, including the CDC, FDA, CMS and scientists working for the National Institutes of Health. The opposite pattern is true when it comes to trust in President Trump’s picks to run some of those agencies.

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Although large shares of the public continue to express positive attitudes toward childhood vaccines and school vaccination requirements, some trends suggest the level of support may be eroding among Republicans and parents. About 8 in 10 parents say they normally keep their children up to date with recommended childhood vaccines. Four in 10 Republicans now say it is “probably” or “definitely true” that “more people have died from COVID-19 vaccines than from the virus itself,” up from one quarter in 2023.

When asked about the H5N1 bird flu, most adults are not concerned about themselves or a family member getting sick, although 44% are “very” or “somewhat concerned” there will be a widespread outbreak in the United States. Looking toward the future, 4 in 10 adults say that compared to 2020, the U.S. government is now more prepared to deal with another pandemic or widespread health crisis. About one in four say the government is less prepared, and one-third say it is just as prepared as it was. Similar shares of adults across partisanship, age, race and ethnicity say the government is more prepared than it was before.

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Alan Goforth

Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.