While many Americans haven't heard of Make America Healthy Again — a rallying cry for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Donald Trump's pick as the next Director of Health and Human Services (HHS) — most do find common ground with Kennedy on at least one health or nutrition-related issue, a new survey finds. Public perceptions of Kennedy have become increasingly polarized by political party in the past year. While most Americans expect him to have influence in Trump's administration, only about half say they want him to, including a large majority of Republicans.
Certain proposals by Kennedy — such as requiring nutrition education in federally-funded medical schools, banning certain food additives, and increasing restrictions on pesticides — are popular, receiving support from majorities of Democrats and Republicans. His plans to lift restrictions on raw milk and to remove fluoride from public drinking water are more divisive. And few Americans — but a sizable share of Republicans — agree with Kennedy's assertions on the dangers of vaccines.
Health-related government agencies — including the HHS — are viewed positively by most Americans according to the survey, conducted two weeks before the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Public health officials are seen as less trustworthy than are people in certain other medical professions (including nurses, doctors, researchers); but opinions of public health officials are more positive than of health insurance providers or pharmaceutical executives. Support for increased regulation of health-related industries, in general, has grown since before the election.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Make America Healthy Again
When we first asked about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the Economist/YouGov poll in April 2023, his net favorability — meaning the shares who view him favorably minus the shares who view him favorably — was +20 among Americans, and he was similarly well-liked among Republicans (+19) and Democrats (+17). Since then, opinions of Kennedy have polarized. Far more Republicans now have positive views of Kennedy (+63) than did last year, while most Democrats now say they dislike him (-41). Democrats had already soured on Kennedy by July 2024, before he dropped out of the presidential race. At that point, Republicans were evenly split on Kennedy; after he endorsed Trump in late August, his popularity among Republicans soared.
Most Americans (65%) think Kennedy will have at least some influence within Trump's administration. Slightly more Republicans (38%) than Democrats (28%) believe he will play a large role. About half of Americans (51%) want Kennedy to have at least a little influence on Trump, including far more Republicans (77%) than Democrats (33%).
Kennedy has said that he wants to make America healthy again, and the mantra has become a catch-all for his proposals aimed at achieving this goal. Just over half of Americans (58%) say they've heard something about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, including 48% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans. Americans are more likely to have a favorable (36%) than unfavorable (11%) view of MAHA. 24% of Democrats favor it while 15% oppose it; among Republicans, 57% favor it and 3% are opposed.
Health-related agencies
Most Americans have a very or somewhat favorable view of the HHS — which Kennedy will head — as well as of agencies it oversees, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While large shares of Democrats view each of these four agencies favorably, Republicans are more divided on them: Roughly equal shares hold positive and negative views of each.
Republican views of the CDC have become more positive in the past year: The center's net favorability among Republicans is +2, up from -27 in July 2023.
Health-related occupations
The survey also asked Americans their views on occupations associated with health care, policy, and research. Majorities say they trust health professionals a great deal or a fair amount to act in the public's best interest who work as nurses, doctors, medical researchers, pharmacists, nutritionists, and mental health counselors. Slightly fewer place at least a fair amount of trust in public health officials, and far fewer are trusting of health insurance providers or pharmaceutical executives.
Health-related industries
Many Americans would like for health-related industries to be more regulated. Majorities favor increasing regulation on the pharmaceutical industry (74%), the health insurance industry (64%), the health care industry (60%), and the food and beverage industry (57%). Slightly fewer, though still significant shares, are supportive of increased regulation of the grocery (51%), agriculture (44%), dairy (41%), and cannabis (41%) industries.
In two previous surveys conducted during the past two years (February 2023 and September 2024), Democrats were far more supportive than Republicans of regulating major industries. But since Trump's election, Republicans have warmed to regulation of the health- and food-related sectors asked about in our latest poll. Compared to roughly two months earlier, there has been an increase of 20 percentage points or more in the shares of Republicans saying they favor increasing regulation on the health insurance, health care, food and beverage, and agriculture industries.
Government priorities
Which health-related issues do Americans want the government to prioritize? Of 13 areas asked about in the survey, the issues most likely to be deemed very important by Americans are food safety (80%), air and water quality (74%), and health care access (73%). Mental health (72%), health insurance (72%), and prescription drug costs (71%) also rank highly.
Of the issues asked about, Americans are least likely to say that reproductive health (53%) should be a very important priority for the government. Three of the issues Kennedy has focused on — chronic disease, nutrition, and vaccines — also rank in the bottom half.
All 13 of the health-related issues asked about are more likely to be rated as very important by Democrats than by Republicans. The biggest partisan gaps on prioritization of health issues apply to vaccines, reproductive health, and health insurance.
Public policy
Does Kennedy's policy agenda have the backing of Americans? We asked about 10 proposals associated with Kennedy and found that many of them receive bipartisan support.
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans support requiring nutrition education in federally funded medical schools, banning certain food additives, funding research into alternative and holistic approaches to health, increasing restrictions on the use of pesticides in agriculture, and banning processed foods from public school lunches.
Fewer than half of Americans support lifting restrictions on the sale of raw milk, removing fluoride from the public water supply, or restricting the use of drugs such as Ozempic for weight loss.
Health beliefs and practices
The share of Americans consuming wellness-related content on social media has increased significantly in recent years. Roughly one-third of Americans (31%) now say they do, which is up from 18% in August 2022. Among Republicans, the share who say they consume online wellness content has roughly doubled, to 33% from 14%. There also have been increases in the shares of Americans who say they follow or subscribe to wellness influencers, and who belong to online wellness-related groups or communities.
While few Americans believe some of Kennedy's more controversial claims — including that the COVID-19 vaccine was the deadliest vaccine ever (26% say this is definitely or probably true), that Ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment (25%), or that vaccines cause autism (24%) — larger shares of Republicans do agree with them (40%, 34%, and 41%, respectively).
Related:
- What Americans believe about health, from eight daily glasses of water to the hair of the dog
- Most Americans endorse at least some aspects of the new-age spiritual movement
- Americans prefer more, not less, regulation of dozens of major industries
- What do Americans think about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?
- How Americans evaluate JFK, RFK Jr., their relatives — and other unrelated Kennedys
See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted November 19 - 20, 2024 among 1,064 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty
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