Safety perceptions of major vaccines show significant drop over the past three years

In a winter marked by flu outbreaks, the persistence of Covid-19, and surges of measles cases across the United States, an Annenberg survey finds that a sizable majority of Americans think the three vaccines that combat these potentially deadly illnesses are safe to take, although perceptions of the safety of all three vaccines showed a statistically significant drop over the past three years.

Flu levels are rising across the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with visits to emergency departments increasing for children over five. In 2025, measles cases hit their highest level in the United States since 1991, with 2,144 confirmed cases, and the outbreak in South Carolina continues to grow, with 920 cases, according to state health officials. Covid-19 cases are also elevated in parts of the country, according to the CDC.

A nationally representative panel survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania finds that the U.S. public regards the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), flu, and Covid-19 vaccines as safe, but finds a small but statistically significant erosion in support. The survey was conducted Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 2025, among 1,637 U.S. adults, and has a margin of error (MOE) of ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. 

The survey finds that 83% of U.S. adults see the MMR vaccine as safe, 80% see the flu vaccine as safe, and 65% see the Covid-19 vaccine as safe.

Although a strong majority of Americans view the measles (MMR) vaccine as safe relative to other vaccines, the fact that the number holding that view is below the 95% threshold required to achieve community immunity is worrisome."

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center

Vaccines undermined

The findings come as federal health officials have taken a variety of seemingly contradictory positions on vaccines – some that could undermine public trust, and others in support of vaccination. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" on Feb. 8 about the South Carolina measles outbreak, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, "Take the vaccine, please. We have a solution for a problem. Not all illnesses are equally dangerous, and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses. But measles is one you should get your vaccine."

Yet in July 2023, over a year and a half before being named to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a podcast interviewer, "There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective."

Since being confirmed as HHS Secretary, in 2025, Kennedy has continued to make unsupported or misleading statements about vaccines, and the health agencies under him have taken steps that some medical authorities say could undermine public confidence in vaccines previously shown to be safe and effective. In June 2025, for example, RFK Jr. removed all 17 members of a key advisory committee to the CDC that helps to develop and recommend vaccine policy, a step former CDC director Tom Frieden said "will undermine public trust under the guise of improving it."

Kennedy's unsupported or misleading claims about the measles vaccine, which is part of the MMR vaccine, include his March 2025 assertion that the measles vaccine leads to "deaths every year," according to FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. In April, Kennedy "minimized" the risk that Covid-19 poses to children and exaggerated the risks of the vaccine, according to FactCheck.org.

In May 2025, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. In January, the CDC revised its childhood vaccination schedule, removing the recommendation of universal vaccination for children against six diseases, including vaccines for flu and Covid-19, thereby reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. These six vaccines are now recommended only after a process the CDC calls "shared clinical decision-making" between patient and health care providers – including, now, the Covid vaccine for pregnant women as well as healthy children.

The American Medical Association said it was "deeply concerned" by the changes, declaring that "when longstanding recommendations are altered without a robust, evidence-based process, it undermines public trust and puts children at unnecessary risk of preventable disease." It added that "the scientific evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports access to childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty societies."

Most think the three vaccines are safe, but declines seen over time

The survey measured respondents' perceived safety of the MMR, flu, and Covid-19 vaccines.

Declines since 2024: As compared with an Annenberg survey in November 2024, there has been a small but significant decrease in the perceived safety of the MMR vaccine, now 83% (down from 86% in 2024) and the flu vaccine, now 80% (down from 83% in 2024), a regression analysis confirms. There was no significant change in perceptions of the Covid-19 vaccine in that time.

Declines since 2022: Further, when compared with an Annenberg survey in August 2022, over three years earlier, the perceived safety of all three vaccines has declined significantly. In August 2022, the MMR vaccine was regarded as safe by 88% (now 83% in the current survey), flu by 85% (now 80%) and Covid-19 by 73% (now 65%).

"While most people continue to regard the flu and MMR vaccines as safe, it is concerning that we are seeing a decline in perceptions of safety over time," said APPC research analyst Laura A. Gibson. "It is unclear whether changes in CDC recommendations during 2025 are impacting perceptions or whether the decline is a continuation of the ones we observed from 2022 to 2024."

APPC's ASAPH survey

The survey data come from the 26^th wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,637 U.S. adults conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) survey was fielded Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 2025. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals in the topline and text due to rounding.