59% of Americans disapprove of RFK Jr.'s moves as health secretary, a new poll says

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. extracurricular nan White House connected Sept. 9. A caller canvass finds a heavy partisan disagreement pinch Republicans trusting Kennedy arsenic overmuch arsenic their ain doctor, but he is unpopular among Democrats and independents. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

What group judge astir wellness progressively depends connected really they consciousness astir politics, according to a caller poll.

Consider President Trump's Sept. 22 informing astir acetaminophen, nan progressive constituent successful Tylenol. KFF, nan nonpartisan wellness argumentation investigation organization, polled voters astir Trump's statements nan time aft he made them.

"What we spot is that it's hugely divided among partisans," says Ashley Kirzinger, nan subordinate head of polling for KFF. The canvass found 59% of Democrats believed President Trump's statements astir Tylenol were "definitely false." On nan different hand, an almost adjacent percent of Republicans — 56% — believed nan declare to beryllium either "definitely true" aliases "probably true."

There is nary technological investigation showing a causal nexus betwixt acetaminophen and autism. But during an different property convention past month, Trump told pregnant women to "tough it out" and debar taking nan celebrated symptom reliever. Physicians groups, meanwhile, proceed to reiterate that it is nan safest medicine to return successful pregnancy, erstwhile untreated fever aliases symptom tin origin different problems.

The poll, which besides asked voters astir different topics, offers a model into really dramatically nationalist sentiment has changed, on pinch national wellness policies.

The canvass recovered that nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen a precipitous diminution successful nationalist spot — astir precocious among Democrats, arsenic nan Trump management useful to dismantle galore of its mandates. Kirzinger notes a 24% diminution successful spot successful nan CDC's vaccine accusation among Democrats, conscionable successful nan past 2 years.

"The problem is nan mistrust is caused by these very group who are ostensibly starring us," erstwhile Surgeon General Richard Carmona tells NPR. Carmona, who served nether President George W. Bush, is 1 of six erstwhile surgeons wide who precocious penned an op-ed successful The Washington Post informing that Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. represents a "threat" to nan nation's health. "They've dismantled nan agencies that had existent scientists who provided information, and alternatively replaced it pinch ideology," Carmona says. "We're already seeing diseases that we usually don't spot coming back, for illustration measles. People will die, and nan ramifications are significant."

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, writes successful a connection to NPR, "The polling released by KFF identifies a deficiency of spot successful nationalist heath institutions which predates Secretary Kennedy's tenure. The caput remains committed to rebuilding nationalist spot successful HHS and its entities done transparency and golden modular science."

Kirzinger says polls historically person consistently recovered that group spot their doctors nan astir erstwhile it comes to getting proposal astir their ain health. But progressively — and particularly aft nan assignment of Kennedy arsenic Trump's wellness caput — she says statement lines are much captious successful determining what sources of accusation group trust connected arsenic nan ground for their wellness decisions. "Among Republicans, RFK is arsenic trusted ... arsenic their ain wellness attraction provider," Kirzinger says nan information shows.

And yet overall, Kennedy's occupation support standing ranks low; nan canvass besides recovered 59% of group — chiefly Democrats and independents — disapproved.

Kirzinger says that arsenic religion successful national wellness agencies declines, group are turning to very different sources.

Democrats opportunity they're relying connected master aesculapian groups, for illustration nan American Medical Association. "More than 8 successful 10 Democrats opportunity that they spot nan AMA aliases nan American Academy of Pediatrics, but among Republicans, it's only astir half," Kirzinger says.

What this intends is nan scenery of nationalist wellness is very fragmented, and group are making choices based connected very disparate beliefs. "As group are going to different sources of accusation to make decisions astir their wellness care, we're going to spot partisanship playing a large domiciled successful what group determine to do," she says.