The American public is viewing the performance of federal health agencies as worse than ever before, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in particular taking the sharpest hits in recent years, according to a recent annual poll from Gallup.
The survey, which reached 1,000 people during the first half of September, found 26% of respondents rating the CDC as doing either an “excellent” or “good” job (with other options being “only fair,” “poor” or “no opinion”). That’s a five-percentage-point decline from 2025, about 14 percentage points lower than ratings given through the COVID-19 pandemic and well below a high point of 66% back in 2017.
The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, scored just a hair lower this past month at 25% excellent or good job ratings. The regulator has been consistently trending below the CDC, with 27% favorable ratings in 2025, a mid-pandemic dip to 36% in 2022 and a high of 46% in 2017.
The two health agencies were graded lower than 10 others included in the poll, which was topped by the Postal Service (58%). They were also the only two agencies across the survey that received more poor ratings than excellent/good ratings, and represent the lowest points for each agency in Gallup’s historical surveys (beginning in 2003 for the CDC and 2009 for the FDA).
Both agencies have recently been on the wrong side of public headlines, Gallup noted while citing this year’s outbreaks of measles and the foodborne cyclospora. Each has also been subject to substantial upheaval and controversies under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including substantial leadership turnover, slashed workforces and regulatory policies that have been criticized by industry groups and public health experts, such as attempted changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Recent years’ ratings also outline a clear split in sentiment trends between political parties, which Gallup notes have tended to align with the incumbent administration since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, Republicans’ views of the agencies increased modestly from pandemic-era lows. Among these respondents, the CDC’s percentage of positive ratings rose from 19% in 2024 to 29% in 2025 and 32% in 2026, while the FDA improved from 23% in 2024 to 35% in 2025 and 36% in 2026.
That modest bump was heavily outweighed by plummeting sentiment among Democrats, for whom the CDC dropped from 65% favorable in 2024 to 32% in 2025 and 20% in 2026. For the FDA, the favorable rating pulled back from 47% in 2024 to 22% in 2025 and 18% in 2026.
Congress in the coming months will need to weigh in again on funding for the two agencies and others under the HHS umbrella. Lawmakers have so far pushed back on the White House’s proposals to substantially reduce budgets and reorganize their structure, though news reports suggest that portions of the agencies have not received their anticipated levels of financial support.
More immediately, Gallup’s performance ratings outline public sentiment just weeks ahead of a midterm election in which many voters say healthcare issues (most notably costs) will be a top issue on their mind heading into the voting booth.