KFF: Trust in Government Around Health Issues Shifts Along Partisan Lines
The results of a new national tracking poll from KFF (formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation), finds shifts taking place along partisan lines, regarding the public’s trust in government health agencies, on vaccines.
A report from KFF published on May 6 by Alex Montero, Grace Sparks, Julian Montalvo III, Ashley Kirzinger, and Liz Hamel finds a major split emerging. The reporters write that “The latest Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that partisan trust in government health agencies on vaccines has shifted notably since the Biden administration, with trust declining among Democrats and rising among Republicans.”
On the one hand, they write, “Overall, doctors remain the most trusted source of reliable vaccine information among the public with eight in ten adults (83 percent) saying they trust their doctor or health care provider a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ to provide reliable information about vaccines and a similar share (81 percent) of parents saying they trust their child’s pediatrician. Smaller shares of the public, but still a majority, say they trust government health agencies, including their local public health department (66 percent), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC (59 percent), or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA (57 percent) to provide reliable information about vaccines. About half of the public (51 percent) say they trust pharmaceutical companies at least a “fair amount” as source of reliable vaccine information. Fewer than half of adults – or about four in ten – say they trust Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (41 percent) or President Trump (37 percent) to provide reliable information about vaccines.”
The reporters further note that “The share of adults who say they have a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of trust in the CDC and the FDA to provide reliable information about vaccines is similar to the share who said so in September 2023. However, this apparent stability masks some notable shifts in partisan trust amid a change in leadership at these agencies. Fewer Democrats – though still a majority — now say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the CDC (70 percent now v. 88 percent in 2023) and the FDA (67 percent v. 86 percent) to provide reliable information on vaccines. Conversely, the share of Republicans who express trust in these agencies has risen by about ten percentage points, with about half of Republicans now saying they trust the CDC (51 percent now up from 40 percent in 2023) and the FDA (52 percent v. 42 percent) to provide information on vaccines.”
