Only 12% of Americans say they trust the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “a lot.”
By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. hosts a press conference to discuss an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, April 16, 2025.
Tom Williams/Getty Images
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American confidence in the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plunged during President Donald Trump’s second term, a new survey from Harvard University and the de Beaumont Foundation. Only 50% of respondents said they trust the CDC’s health recommendations, a sharp decline from the 77% who said they would trust the CDC in 2025.
Since last year’s poll, the Trump administration has overhauled U.S. health and science agencies. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fires longtime agency vaccine scientistswhile several high-ranking personalities at the CDC, as well as other health agencies, resigned or accused Kennedy of forcing them out. The CDC also stopped coordinating closely with international public health agencies, such as the World Health Organizationand sought to reduce the number of recommended vaccines for children. And the Department of Health and Social Services has modified the American food pyramid to encourage Americans to eat more red meat. (Some of these movements were challenged in court.)
All these changes were critical by public health experts, researchers, and medical and scientific associations, as endangering the health of Americans, especially children.
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The new poll surveyed about 2,200 adults and was conducted between March 19 and April 1, 2026. Democrats and independents have particularly lost confidence in the CDC: Only 34% of Democrats and 47% of independents said they “somewhat” trust the agency’s recommendations, down from 92% and 77% respectively in 2025. Meanwhile, about 67% of Republicans said they trust the agency, compared to 63% in 2025.
Other wings of HHS also saw low levels of trust in 2026: Only 53% of respondents trust the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health to improve health. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Scientific American.
When the poll’s authors asked participants about their support for changes to U.S. health agencies under the current administration, 86 percent of Democrats said they “disapproved” of the agencies’ actions. Republicans, on the other hand, overwhelmingly said they “approve” of the changes (with 80 percent in favor). Yet the majority of adults, about 60 percent, believe the U.S. government has gone too far in cutting research budgets.
Americans, however, have not lost all confidence in health care professionals themselves. Nurses, doctors and pharmacists, as well as health groups such as the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Cancer Society (ACS), enjoyed broad support from 80 percent or more of those surveyed.
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