Many are concerned that low vaccination rates among children will lead to more infectious disease outbreaks and deaths

January 27, 2025

Ahead of the Senate confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), there is little public support for some of his stances.

The public’s views of Kennedy’s nomination by President Trump as the head of the HHS are divided along partisan lines. Overall, 30% approve of his nomination and 42% disapprove. Fifty-nine percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s selection of Kennedy to run the HHS, but only 24% of independents and 10% of Democrats agree.

About half of the public is extremely or very concerned that parents’ decisions not to vaccinate their children will cause additional infectious disease outbreaks or deaths. Democrats and adults ages 60 and older express more concern than Republicans or younger adults.

Roughly three in ten adults favor reconsidering government recommendations for widely used vaccines, like the flu vaccine. Thirty-nine percent oppose, and 32% neither favor nor oppose such an action. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to favor reconsidering government recommendations for widely used vaccines.

There is bipartisan support for restricting or reformulating processed foods to remove ingredients like added sugar or dyes. Sixty-six percent favor such an action while only 12% oppose.

Fewer favor the removal of fluoride from drinking water (26%) or eliminating restrictions on the sale of unpasteurized or raw milk (23%). While neither a majority of Democrats nor Republicans support either measure, more Democrats than Republicans oppose them.

Few adults are confident in the president’s ability to lower the cost of health care in 2025. Most place substantial blame on pharmaceutical companies (75%) and private health insurers (69%) for the country’s high health care costs. Fifty-four percent view the federal government as extremely or very responsible for high health care costs and 45% attribute responsibility to health care providers.

The nationwide poll was conducted January 9-13, 2025, using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,147 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.