Most Americans distrust Trump, RFK Jr. on health: Axios-Ipsos poll

The big picture: Our first polling since the election shows most Americans are happy with their ability to get quality health care or foods, but there's continued dissatisfaction with out-of-pocket costs for health care.

• 84% of the public report their own emotional well-being is very or somewhat good.
• Only about a third think the government puts the public's health and well-being first, or that America is adequately prepared to deal with another pandemic.

There's lingering dissatisfaction with health industries: 59% support banning TV pharma ads and 64% want insurers to cover prescription weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — up 3 percentage points from when we asked the question in August.

Between the lines: Members of the incoming Trump administration won't be entering office with widespread public trust.

• 60% or more of respondents say the have at least a fair amount of trust in information from the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or National Institutes of Health. And 45% report trusting information from Fauci.
• Fewer say they have the same amount of trust in information on health topics from Trump (32%), Kennedy (30%), Elon Musk (25%), Mehmet Oz (23%) or others Trump has nominated to lead federal health agencies.

"A lot of Trump's health picks aren't well-known, so they're not trusted, but even Donald Trump hasn't seen a resurgence in public views of his credibility on public health since COVID," said Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson.

• There are significant partisan splits, with nearly 7 in 10 Republicans saying they trust Trump, while just 7% of Democrats do.
• And as we saw during the pandemic, independents tend to side with Democrats on the trust issue: Even now, 45% of independents say they trust Fauci, though his rating has fallen since the height of COVID.

Friction point: Kennedy, Trump's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, has struck a chord with his focus on food and nutrition. Some of that is linked to concern with obesity, which continues to rank as the top overall health threat, ahead of poor mental health and opioids and fentanyl.

• But support for his other positions is low. Just over a quarter of the public (29%) supports removing fluoride from water supplies. About 1 in 5 (18%) back ending vaccine requirements for attending public schools. One quarter (24%) support firing science staff at the FDA and NIH. And 1 in 5 (19%) would reduce testing requirements before allowing new drugs or therapies to be sold to the public.
• "RFK Jr.'s focus on safe foods goes over well with the public. He's also in the majority with his hostility to the health care industry," Jackson said.

• "But as you get to some of his other views on public health — removing fluoride, ending vaccine requirements for kids, firing research and science staff at health agencies — only a small minority support any of the non-nutrition health things he's calling for," Jackson said.

The survey shows the public still sees a significant role for government in health care.

• Presented with a choice between Musk's and Kennedy's positions, 60% support increasing food safety inspections to 37% cutting federal spending by $2 trillion.
• Majorities want to see public health programs strengthened, including 72% for food safety inspections, 71% for the Veterans Health Administration, 64% for Medicare, 57% for the CDC and 54% for Medicaid.
• 73% say the Affordable Care Act should be strengthened or left as it is.

Methodology: This Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted Dec. 6-9 by Ipsos' KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,002 general population adults age 18 or older.

• The margin of sampling error is ±3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults.