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# Trust in FDA and CDC Remains Low After Vaccine Changes
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/trust-in-fda-and-cdc-remains-low-after-vaccine-changes/
- Published: 2026-02-06T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T15:32:44.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5160624

Public confidence in FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remains low following recent changes to the federally recommended childhood vaccine schedule, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) [poll](https://www.kff.org/health-information-trust/trust-in-cdc-and-views-of-federal-childhood-vaccine-schedule-changes/?ref=fdaweb.com). The survey, conducted weeks after the Trump administration announced significant revisions to childhood vaccine recommendations, found that fewer than half of U.S. adults trust the CDC to provide reliable information about vaccines, and most lack confidence in federal health agencies’ ability to set vaccine policy for children.

The CDC announced in January that the recommended childhood immunization schedule would be scaled back, reducing the number of diseases targeted for routine vaccination from 17 to 11\. FDA, which regulates vaccine safety and approval, shares responsibility with the CDC for federal vaccine policy. The changes follow earlier revisions introduced in 10/2025 and have positioned the U.S. as an outlier compared with other high-income countries, according to KFF.

Overall, just 47% of adults said they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the CDC for reliable vaccine information, the poll found, matching the lowest levels recorded since the Covid-19 pandemic. Trust has eroded sharply among Democrats, falling nine percentage points since 9/2025 to 55%, and down from 88% in 9/2023\. Trust levels among Republicans (43%) and independents (46%) were largely unchanged.

Confidence in federal health agencies more broadly is also limited. Only 44% of adults said they have at least some confidence in agencies such as the FDA and CDC to make recommendations about the childhood vaccine schedule, while 56% said they have little or no confidence, including 29% who said they have none at all.

The poll also found that awareness of the changes has further undermined trust in federal health agencies. Among those familiar with the revisions, 53% said the changes made them less trusting of agencies such as the FDA and CDC, compared with 14% who said they became more trusting. Eight in ten Democrats who were aware of the changes said their trust declined, while about half of Republicans said the changes did not affect their trust.

Despite declining confidence in federal agencies, trust in long-established childhood vaccines remains high. At least eight in ten adults said they are confident that measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and polio vaccines are safe for children, vaccines that continue to be routinely recommended. Confidence was lower for vaccines that were recently moved from routine recommendations to shared clinical decision-making, including hepatitis B (70%), flu (65%), and Covid-19 vaccines (48%), with the sharpest partisan divide seen over Covid-19 vaccines.

The poll also measured views of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has overseen the vaccine policy changes. A majority of adults, 55%, said they disapprove of his overall job performance, and 57% disapprove of his handling of U.S. vaccine policy, though approval remains high among Republicans and supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement.