A slight majority of Americans questioned — 51 percent — view Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. favorably, according to an NBC News poll released on Monday.
Slightly fewer than half of respondents — 48 percent — view him unfavorably, including a majority of Democrats surveyed.
When questioned about Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” policies, 35 percent said that said the food industry was the most to blame for America’s chronic health problems and 32 percent said the choices of individuals were the biggest contributing factor.
Twelve percent picked socioeconomic status, 10 percent pointed to health insurance companies and 6 percent listed environmental toxins as top reasons for chronic health issues.
Kennedy has pledged to focus on ultra-processed foods, especially for children. His remarks on vaccines are also closely watched.
In late May, the CDC said that it would no longer recommend regular COVID-19 shots for healthy children and pregnant women.
Last week, he removed every member of the independent panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, citing a need to “re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.” He the named new picks to the body that included several critics of vaccines as well as people who had spread misinformation during the pandemic.
In the new survey, 80 percent of respondents said they supported the use of vaccines to prevent disease, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Another 13 percent “somewhat” opposed using vaccines to prevent disease, and 7 percent said they “strongly” opposed it. Younger and older voters were more likely to say they “strongly” supported vaccines, pollsters found.
The online poll of 19,410 respondents, conducted May 30 to June 10, had a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.
