As Senate committee hearings begin for President Donald Trump’s nominees for key health positions, the latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that public trust in government health agencies has fallen over the past 18 months, continuing a decline that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The share who says they trust the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to make the right recommendations on health dropped slightly from 66% in June 2023 to 61% now, while trust in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 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.
This KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF. The survey was conducted January 7-14, 2025, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,310 U.S. adults in English (1,233) and in Spanish (77). The sample includes 1,024 adults (n=48 in Spanish) reached through the SSRS Opinion Panel either online (n=999) or over the phone (n=25).
The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative panel of U.S. adults ages 18 or older recruited using probability-based sampling techniques. Contact SSRS for more information on the SSRS Opinion Panel.