The Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the childhood vaccine schedule as part of its Make America Healthy Again agenda have not helped federal health agencies regain public trust.
Faith in public health authorities has declined even among many of the Republican voters who helped elevate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, according to polling by the health research organization KFF conducted in January and published Friday.
More than half of voters, 53%, said the move makes them trust federal health agencies less, while a third said it does not make any difference in their level of trust.
Among Republicans, 25% said the changes made them trust HHS even less, while another 50% said it made no difference. Only a quarter of GOP voters said it increased their faith in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and similar agencies.
Only about half of the KFF poll participants said they were aware of the changes to the vaccine schedule, the majority of whom anticipated it would be harmful to children.
In early January, the CDC reduced the routine recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11, no longer routinely recommending shots for RSV, seasonal flu, or the newborn Hepatitis B vaccine, among others.
Ostensibly, these changes bring the United States more in line with other developed countries, like Denmark, but critics contend the real agenda is the theory promoted by Kennedy and others in the Trump administration that childhood vaccines have increased rates of autism.
Kennedy and other public health officials appointed by President Donald Trump have often said they are seeking to rebuild trust in the CDC, the FDA, and other public health agencies following the policy failures of the COVID-19 pandemic, but changing the vaccine schedule does not appear to have helped in this effort.
Trust in the CDC in particular has declined significantly since March 2020, when roughly 85% of people on both sides of the aisle reported having a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the CDC. As of January, only 47% of people report the same regardless of political affiliation.
Since Kennedy took office last year, trust in the CDC to deliver accurate information about vaccines peaked in April, with roughly 70% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans expressing at least a fair amount of confidence in the agency.
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As of January, only 55% of Democrats and 43% of Republicans are fairly confident in the reliability of the CDC.
A separate KFF poll from October 2025 found that parents overwhelmingly have the most trust in their children’s pediatricians when making decisions about vaccines.
