President-elect Trump and his associates may have some ground to make up for when it comes to trust with medical information compared to former White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci, according to a new survey.
According to the latest poll from the Axios/Ipsos American Health Index, 45% of Americans say they “very” or “quite a bit” trust the information on health topics provided by Fauci. Another 32% said the same about Trump, 30% said the same about Trump’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 25% said the same about billionaire Elon Musk.
Both President-elect Kennedy and Musk, who will co-lead the newly formed Department of Governmental Effectiveness (DOGE) with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in the incoming Trump administration, have previously expressed skepticism about the efficacy or safety of vaccinations . Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, said in a recent interview that he did not want to eliminate approved vaccines but suggested that health agencies should do more research on them.
Trump and other Republicans have criticized the handling of the pandemic by Fauci, who was the first face of the Trump and Biden administrations’ response to COVID-19.
When asked in the survey whether they agreed that the United States was “adequately prepared to deal with another pandemic or widespread health crisis,” 34% of respondents said they “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed. Another 65% said they ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ disagreed.
More than half, 54%, say the U.S. government has a responsibility to ensure that everyone has access to health care. About 27% said Americans are responsible for finding their own insurance coverage, while 19% were unsure or skipped the question.
A majority (77%) of survey respondents said the government should ensure that drugs and medical treatments sold in the United States are safe and effective. Only 13% said people were responsible for their own research. About 10% said they were unsure or skipped the question.
The Axios/Ipsos survey was conducted on 1,002 people from December 6 to 9, and the margin of sampling error is 3.3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
