One Year In: Public Views of a Changing Public Health Landscape is a national poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Listening Lab. The poll was conducted March 19 – April 1, 2026, among a probability-based, nationally representative sample of 2205 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, to better understand people’s views about the changing public health landscape one year into the new federal administration.

It was fielded online and via telephone (cell phone and landline) by SSRS, an independent research company. This survey is nationally representative of U.S. adults. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, March 19 – April 1, 2026, among a sample of 2205 adults ages 18 or older in the United States. Republicans include adults who lean Republican, Democrats include adults who lean Democrat, and Independents includes adults who identify as “other” or are unaffiliated. The margin of error at the 95% confidence interval is +/- 2.0 percentage points.

For decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was one of the most trusted institutions in American life. Trust in the CDC remained relatively stable in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hovering around 75% from 2022 to 2025. These new national poll findings show concerning declines in the American public’s trust in federal health agencies one year into the new federal administration. One year into new leadership of the U.S. public health system, trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal health institutions has dropped dramatically. Only 50% of the public says they now trust health recommendations from the CDC, compared to 77% in spring 2025.

This decline in trust is driven by deep partisan divides. From 2025 to 2026, trust in CDC health recommendations has fallen from 92% to 34% among Democrats and from 77% to 47% among Independents, (92% to 34%) and 30 percentage points among Independents (77% to 47%), while trust among Republicans has increased very slightly from 63% to 67%.

The steep drop in public trust also translates to losses in trust across many demographic groups. Trust in the CDC has fallen more than 30 percentage points among women (80% to 48%); Black and Hispanic adults (77% to 43% and 81% to 50% respectively); those living in urban areas (80% to 48%); and those with a college degree (80% to 46%).

When examining public trust across prominent leaders and groups, the top trusted sources for health recommendations in 2026 are clinicians – nurses (89%), doctors (88%), and pharmacists (85%) – followed by friends and family (81%), nonprofit health and healthcare groups (79% – 80%), and researchers (78%).

State and local public health agencies are now substantially more trusted than the CDC. Trust in state and local public health agencies has also fallen in the last year, but not by as much. A majority of the public still trusts health recommendations from their local (70%) and state (66%) public health agencies.

A slim majority disapproves of federal public health agency actions in the past year, with a high level of concern about the influence of leaders’ personal beliefs, misplaced priorities, and budget cuts. With 55% public disapproval of federal health agencies’ actions in the past year, top concerns about their actions under new leadership include wide agreement that their recommendations have been influenced too much by leaders’ personal beliefs (68%), leaders are focused on the wrong priorities (66%), and programs have been cut or scaled back too much (61%).

Public support for routine childhood vaccination policies remains strong, though a substantial minority supports reductions to the routine vaccine schedule. More than three-quarters (77%) of the public – including majorities across party lines – say that parents should be required to vaccinate their children in order to attend school. A majority (58%) also oppose reducing the childhood vaccine schedule, which forms the basis of childhood vaccine requirements, but there is substantial minority support (42%) for this change.

Views of vaccine safety have dropped closer to pre-COVID-19 levels. As another indication that support for vaccines may be softening, the fraction of the public saying childhood vaccines are “very safe” has dipped from 63% in 2025 to 57% in 2026, trending back to pre-pandemic levels (54% in 2019) from a high of 70% during COVID-19 (2022).

A majority of the public supports federal changes to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with higher support for individual recommendations on less sugar and more protein. Six in ten (60%) support the recent changes to the food pyramid and dietary guidelines, and even stronger majorities support specific measures, like recommendations to avoid or sharply limit sugar and highly-processed food (90%) and to increase protein intake (85%). A much smaller majority (62%) supports recommendations to increase beef and whole milk consumption.

Support is bipartisan for limiting sugar and highly-processed food (Republicans: 94%, Democrats: 89%) and for increasing protein intake (Republicans: 92%, Democrats: 79%).

However, there is more division when considering overall support for changes, with 83% of Republicans saying they support the overall changes, compared to only 37% of Democrats. Support for recommendations to increase beef and whole milk consumption is also divided, with 80% support among Republicans and 44% support among Democrats.