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Americans' trust in healthcare providers, public health agencies, and healthcare officials has declined in the past two years, according to a recent poll from KFF.
How much Americans trust healthcare providers, agencies
For the poll, KFF surveyed 1,310 U.S. adults between Jan. 7 and 14.
A majority of respondents said they still trust their doctor, state and local officials, and healthcare agencies like CDC and FDA a "great deal" or a "fair amount," but those numbers have declined since KFF's poll in June 2023.
For example, 93% of respondents said they trusted their doctor a great deal or fair amount in 2023, a number that dropped to 85% in 2025. FDA saw the largest drop in trust, with 53% of respondents saying the trust FDA a great deal or fair amount compared to 65% in 2023.
A majority of respondents said they trust their doctor, NIH scientists, HHS, CMS, FDA, and state and local officials to make the right recommendations when it comes to health issues.
However, just over 40% of respondents said they trust President Donald Trump to make the right recommendations when it comes to health issues. Less than half of respondents said the same about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee to lead HHS, and Mehmet Oz, Trump's nominee to lead CMS.
How Americans feel about vaccines
KFF also asked respondents if they keep their children up to date on recommended vaccines and found that the percentage who said they do has dropped from 90% in 2021 to 82% in 2025, with a significant drop among Republican respondents.
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Similarly, the percentage of respondents who said that the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) outweigh the risks has dropped over the past three years. This includes Democrat/Democrat-leaning parents and Republican/Republican-leaning parents.
In addition, just under a quarter of respondents said they believe the false claim that MMR vaccines are proven to cause autism is either "definitely true" or "probably true", including almost a third of Republican respondents.
(Kearney et. al., "KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust," 1/28; Kearney et. al., KFF poll methodology, 1/28)
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