Awake A 👁️
Recent polling and analysis from early 2026 indicate a significant, ongoing partisan divide in trust in science, with MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters generally exhibiting higher skepticism toward scientific institutions, vaccines, and climate change consensus compared to the general population.
Trust in Science and Institutions
*Declining Trust: A 2026 report indicates that trust in federal health agencies like the CDC, FDA, and NIH has fallen among the general public during the second Trump administration, decreasing from 74%–76% in February 2024 to 60%–62% by February 2026.
*Partisan Divide: Data from 2022–2024 shows that while trust in science was relatively similar in the 1970s, it has polarized. By 2024, only 36% of Republicans expressed "a great deal" of trust in the scientific community, compared with 45% of Democrats.
*MAGA Perspective: MAGA supporters often exhibit distrust in expert-driven institutions and favor independent, non-governmental sources of information.
Vaccines and "MAHA" Movement
*MAHA Movement Skepticism: The "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement, aligned with MAGA supporters, holds high levels of skepticism toward vaccines.
*Vaccine Attitudes: A February 2026 poll found that 65% of MAHA respondents supported reducing the number of vaccines Americans receive, compared to 41% of the general population
*Policy Impact: MAHA-supporting parents are twice as likely as non-supporters to s okkip or delay vaccines for their children.
*Republicans report higher usage of non-evidence-based COVID-19 treatments like ivermectin.
Climate Change
*Partisan Divide: Climate science is a major area of polarization. A 2020 report found 87% of Democrats trusted climate scientists, compared to 56% of Republicans.
*MAGA Views: Studies show that supporters of Donald Trump are less likely than those who disapprove of him to agree that human activity drives climate change (50% vs. 79%, respectively).
*Scientific Consensus Disconnect: Conservative ideology and Trumpism have been linked to a higher likelihood of rejecting anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change, a trend that decreases with higher education.
Key Findings on Public Health Policies
*Vaccine Policy Changes: In February 2026, amid policy changes that reduced the number of diseases targeted by routine childhood vaccinations, trust in the CDC among the general public remained at a low level.
*Trusted Messengers: Despite the overall distrust, some studies found that using trusted messengers—such as seeing Donald Trump speak positively about vaccines—could increase vaccine acceptance among his supporters.
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