Poll: After President Trump’s warning, many people are unsure whether using Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism; Most Republicans say it’s probably or definitely true

Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have also undertaken sweeping changes to the nation’s vaccine policy, including tightening COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, revising the pediatric vaccination schedule, and firing the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in August.

The latest poll shows that public trust in the CDC continues to decline and is now at its lowest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of the public now say they have “a lot” (18%) or “somewhat” (32%) trust in the CDC to provide reliable vaccine information, up from 57% in July and 63% in September 2023.

Among partisans, Democrats remain most likely to say they trust the CDC on vaccines (64%), although that figure is down 24 percentage points since 2023. Among independents, nearly half (47%) say they trust the CDC on vaccines, up from 61% in 2023, while the share of Republicans who trust vaccine information from the CDC is lower (39%) but similar to that of 2023 (40%).

Compared to the CDC, more people say they trust the American Academy of Pediatrics (69% of parents) and the American Medical Association (64% of all adults) to provide reliable information about vaccines, two groups that were recently removed from federal vaccine task forces.

“It is encouraging, although far from ideal, to see that as trust in our nation’s science agencies plummets, the public has confidence in the professional associations that have come forward,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF.

Other results include:

• The poll reveals that 43% of the population consider themselves supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, championed by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy. Two-thirds (66%) of MAHA supporters are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, including 59% who also identify as supporters of the president’s “Make America Great Again” movement. Far fewer Democrats (20%) or neutral-leaning independents (13%).
• Most (59%) of the public disapprove of Secretary Kennedy’s overall performance, and a similar proportion (62%) disapprove of how he is handling vaccine policy. Partisans are divided on both issues, with Republicans largely supportive, while Democrats and independents largely disapprove.
• As Florida moves to end its school vaccination requirements, most parents nationally (70%) say they are opposed to eliminating public school vaccination requirements in their state. More than half of parents (56%) say vaccinating their children is part of their responsibility to protect the health of others, more than the proportion (44%) who say it is a personal choice. Republican parents (62%) are much more likely than Democratic parents (26%) to consider vaccinating their children a personal choice.

Designed and analyzed by KFF public opinion researchers, this survey was conducted September 23-29, 2025, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,334 U.S. adults in English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.