The Trump administration and Republicans have launched headlong right into a broad overhaul of the American vaccine system – regardless of it being an overhaul that very few Americans seem to actually want.
And there are growing indicators that it’s taken a political toll on the person behind it: US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For the previous few years, Kennedy’s picture numbers have confirmed remarkably resilient. Even as he espoused debunked claims about vaccines and science and moved from Democratic presidential candidate to impartial to endorsing and serving underneath President Donald Trump, Americans as a complete have usually appreciated him greater than they’ve disliked him.
Whether that’s due to the Kennedy identify or anything, it’s enabled him to acquire important political energy.
But his degree of public assist seems to be altering, which may be a foul signal for the person he serves, President Donald Trump, and will give the administration pause about actually turning him free on vaccines.
Recent polling now reveals Kennedy’s numbers are considerably underwater for his efficiency to this point. And maybe extra considerably, only a few Americans appear to have strongly favorable emotions towards him or belief him on vaccines.
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll launched Friday confirmed Americans disapproved of Kennedy’s job efficiency 55%-42%.
Political independents had been much more destructive, disapproving 61-34%. And even 21% of Republicans disapproved.
The poll additionally confirmed 38% of US adults strongly disapproved of Kennedy, in comparison with simply 15% who strongly authorized. So, strongly destructive views greater than doubled strongly optimistic ones.
The survey echoes a CBS News-YouGov poll from late August and early September that additionally confirmed Americans disapproved of Kennedy by double digits, 55-45%. Similar to the Washington Post poll, independents disapproved 61-39%, and even 20% of Republicans disapproved.
About the one different time Kennedy’s picture numbers have been this dangerous was when he was operating for president as an impartial in mid-2024 – after he ditched the Democratic Party and was trying like he might doubtlessly siphon votes from Trump. After his endorsement of Trump, his numbers recovered.
And it’s very troublesome to divorce his newly destructive numbers from his vaccine strikes.
Polls have proven that Americans have typically appreciated the concepts behind his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative – issues like wholesome consuming and concentrating on processed meals – however they’re on a really totally different web page in terms of vaccines.
The CBS poll confirmed 70% of Americans stated the US authorities’s coverage needs to be to encourage mother and father to vaccinate their youngsters “for diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella.” A panel that Kennedy has restocked along with his personal picks, a few of whom have made unproven claims about vaccines, voted this week to cease recommending the mixed measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine to youngsters underneath age 4. (The identical panel voted unanimously Friday to shift away from a broad suggestion for Covid-19 vaccines to say that individuals who need one should seek the advice of with a well being care supplier.)
And about 80% of oldsters in a September KFF poll stated public faculties ought to require college students to get the measles and polio vaccines, with some exceptions.
Vaccine skepticism has clearly grown on the appropriate lately, however Americans as a complete proceed to be very pro-vaccine.
And Americans additionally appear to have little religion in Kennedy’s management on this topic.
A July KFF poll confirmed 63% of Americans had “not much” or no confidence in Kennedy to supply dependable details about vaccines.
Just 10% expressed a “great deal” of confidence.
The poll additionally confirmed considerably extra folks thought Kennedy’s vaccine strikes had been making Americans much less secure (36%) reasonably than safer (20%). More than 4 in 10 Americans picked neither possibility.
What these numbers counsel: Many Americans seem to have been sluggish to tune in on his strikes at HHS.
But that seems to be altering amid the fiasco over Trump firing the pinnacle of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, well being officers more and more talking out, and now Kennedy’s ramped-up efforts to alter the vaccine system.
And it’s going poorly for Kennedy.