At today’s Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, said that Kennedy’s history of undermining public confidence in vaccines “with unfounded or misleading arguments” was a concern. “As a physician who’s been involved in immunization programs, I’ve seen the benefits of vaccinations. I know they save lives,” he said. “I know they’re a crucial part of keeping our nation healthy.”
Cassidy also noted that Kennedy, nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has built a large public following. “There are many who trust you more than they trust their own physician,” Cassidy said. “And so the question I need to have answered is, What will you do with that trust?”
Cassidy may be the deciding vote in determining whether Kennedy is confirmed. He said he is “struggling” with the decision. However he votes, the senator was clearly right about Kennedy’s appeal to a sizable swath of the American public. A poll released this week by KFF, a healthcare foundation, found that 43% of American adults say they trust Kennedy “a great deal” or “a fair amount” on health issues. (The same percentage said they trust President Trump and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s choice to lead the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.)
Unsurprisingly, there’s a vast partisan split, as you can see in the chart below. More than 80% of Republicans trust Trump and Kennedy on health issues compared with just 7% of Democrats. The split for Oz is similar.
The KFF poll also found that public trust in government health agencies has fallen over the past 18 months, continuing a slide that started during the Covid pandemic. And 26% of Republicans now say that have skipped or delayed some vaccines for their children, up from 13% in 2023.
Read more about the poll findings.
