In a winter marked by flu outbreaks, the persistence of Covid-19 and a surge in measles cases in the United States, an Annenberg survey finds that a fairly large majority of Americans believe the three vaccines that fight these potentially deadly diseases are safe to receive, although perceptions of the safety of all three vaccines have shown significant declines over the past three years.
Flu levels are rising across the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with emergency room visits increasing for children over five years old. In 2025, measles cases in the United States reached their highest level since 1991, with 2,144 confirmed cases, and the outbreak in South Carolina continues to grow, with 920 cases, according to state health officials. Cases of Covid-19 are also up in parts of the country, according to the CDC.
A nationally representative panel survey from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) finds that the US public views the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), influenza, 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 US adults and has a margin of error (MOE) of ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
The survey finds that 83% of US adults view the MMR vaccine as safe, 80% view the flu vaccine as safe, and 65% view the Covid-19 vaccine as safe.
“Although a large majority of Americans view the measles (MMR) vaccine as safe compared to other vaccines, the fact that the number who hold this view is below the 95% threshold needed to achieve community immunity is concerning.”
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director, Annenberg Center for Public Policy
Vaccines are compromised
The findings come as federal health officials have taken a number of seemingly contradictory positions on vaccines — some that could undermine public confidence and others in support of vaccination. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” Feb. 8 about the measles outbreak in South Carolina, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said: “Get the vaccine, please. We have a solution to a problem. Not all diseases are equally dangerous, but not all people are equally dangerous. Get your vaccine.”
However, in July 2023, more than a year and a half before he was appointed to head the US Department of Health and Human Services, longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he told an interviewer on the podcast: “There is 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 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 CDC advisory committee that helps develop and recommend vaccine policy, a move that former CDC Director Tom Frieden said would “undermine public trust under the guise of improving it.”
Kennedy’s unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the measles vaccine, which is part of the MMR vaccine, include his claim in March 2025 that the measles vaccine leads to “deaths every year,” according to FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy. In April, Kennedy “minimized” the risk of Covid-19 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 immunization schedule, removing the recommendation for universal vaccination for children against six diseases, including the flu and Covid-19 vaccines, reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. Those six vaccines are now only recommended after a process the CDC calls a vaccine for pregnant women as well as for healthy children.
The American Medical Association said it was “deeply concerned” about the changes, saying “when long-standing recommendations are changed without a robust, evidence-based process, it undermines public trust and puts children at unnecessary risk of preventable disease.” He added that “the scientific evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports access to childhood vaccinations recommended by national medical specialty societies.”
Most people believe that all three vaccines are safe, but they decrease over time
The survey measured respondents’ perceived safety of the MMR, flu and Covid-19 vaccines.
Fall from 2024: Compared to an Annenberg survey in November 2024, there was a small but significant decrease in the perceived safety of the MMR vaccine, now 83% (from 86% in 2024) and the influenza vaccine, now 80% (from 83% in 2024), a regression analysis confirms. There was no significant change in perceptions of the Covid-19 vaccine over that period.
Fall from 2022: Additionally, compared to an Annenberg survey in August 2022, three years earlier, the perceived safety of all three vaccines has declined significantly. In August 2022, the MMR vaccine was considered safe by 88% (now 83% in the current survey), by 85% (now 80%) for influenza and by 73% (now 65%) for Covid-19.
“While most people continue to view 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 affecting perceptions or whether the decline is a continuation of what we observed from 2022 to 2024.”
APPC ASAPH survey
The research data comes from the 26u wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,637 US adults conducted for the Annenberg Center for Public Policy by SSRS, an independent market research firm. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) survey was conducted Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 2025. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All digits are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals on the top line and text due to rounding.
