Trust in CDC, FDA, NIH shrinks: Survey

A poll published Thursday found that Americans have lost trust in federal health institutions and are more likely to say they trust independent, professional medical organizations when it comes to advice on topics like vaccination.

The February survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania found that public trust in agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had fallen by 5 to 7 percentage points in the past year.

Public trust in these institutions had been declining prior to 2025, however, having fallen from around 75 percent to 67 percent during the final year of the Biden administration.

When it came to public health officials, 38 percent of survey participants said they had some degree of confidence in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with the remaining 62 percent being unconfident.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz scored better than Kennedy, with 42 percent expressing some confidence in him and 58 percent saying they were unconfident in him.

Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, scored better than both Kennedy and Oz, receiving a 54 percent net confidence rating by participants.

“The public is differentiating the trustworthiness of career scientists in the CDC, NIH, and FDA from that of the leaders of those agencies,” Ken Winneg, APPC’s managing director of survey research, said in a statement. “And recalling substantially higher confidence in the guidance that former director Fauci provided than that offered by Secretary Kennedy or Dr. Oz.”

These findings don’t bode well for Kennedy, who came into the role with the stated goal of restoring trust in public health institutions.

External professional medical groups scored better than the current and former federal authorities. Seventy-seven percent of participants said they were confident in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for providing “trustworthy information about matters concerning public health.” And 82 percent said the same for the American Heart Association and 73 percent for the American Medical Association.

These organizations have notably broken with federal health guidance under Kennedy’s tenure, with the AAP having published its own childhood immunization schedule after the CDC reduced the number of recommended vaccines.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted last year to delay birth doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. In the APPC’s survey, 42 percent said they trusted the AAP recommendations when it came to hepatitis B immunization while only 11 percent said the same for the CDC.

The survey was conducted Feb. 3-17 with 2,498 invited participants. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment on these survey results.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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