KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Trust in the CDC and Views of Federal Childhood Vaccine Schedule Changes

A new KFF Tracking Poll highlights a growing challenge for public health communication: trust in vaccines remains relatively strong, while trust in federal health institutions continues to decline. Fewer than half of U.S. adults now report trusting the CDC for vaccine information following recent changes to the childhood immunization schedule, and among those aware of the changes, most expect a negative impact on children’s health.

At the same time, confidence in the safety of long-standing vaccines such as MMR and polio remains high across demographic groups. These findings underscore the importance of addressing institutional trust and transparency as distinct—but critical—components of effective public health communication. Read the article from KFF here.

To support deeper understanding of these trends, KFF has also launched an interactive dashboard compiling five years of polling on public trust in health information, vaccine attitudes, and use of news, social media, and AI for health information here.