KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Bird Flu

As bird flu continues to circulate among animals in the U.S., the latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that the public is more concerned about the economic impacts of the disease rather than the human health impacts at this point. Trust in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide reliable information on bird flu is divided along partisan lines, with Democrats and independents largely expressing confidence in the agency, while most Republicans report little to no trust, reflecting broader partisan differences in skepticism toward public health agencies since the COVID-19 pandemic. Divided trust in the CDC and other public health agencies could pose a problem for communicating precautionary measures to the public if bird flu evolves into a wider public health emergency. Currently, the poll finds that most of the public is uncertain about which precautions are recommended to prevent bird flu transmission.

Awareness and Concerns About Bird Flu Outbreak in the U.S.

Amid concerns from public health officials, this KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that attention to news about bird flu has remained steady since January, and the public is most concerned about bird flu’s impact on grocery costs rather than health implications. Since spring 2024, H5N1 avian influenza has affected humans and animals in the U.S. and Canada. At this time, the CDC reports that the current public health risk remains low. While some human infections have occurred, including one death linked to H5N1 in January 2025, there have been no known cases of human-to-human transmission.

Half of adults in the U.S. have heard or read “a lot” (13%) or “some” (39%) about recent cases of bird flu in the U.S., including larger shares of Democrats (59%), those with a college degree (59%), and adults ages 65 and older (68%). One-third (32%) of the public have heard “a little” and 16% have heard “nothing at all.” Similar shares – about half – across race and ethnicity have heard at least “some” about the avian flu.

Amid national concerns about inflation and rising prices, nearly nine in ten adults are “very” or “somewhat” concerned that bird flu will increase the cost of food in the U.S. This includes at least eight in ten adults across partisans, race and ethnicity, and household income levels.

Smaller shares, but still about half, of the public are concerned about the health impacts of the bird flu, including the impact on their own families. About half of U.S. adults are concerned the bird flu will be the next pandemic (51%) or that it will negatively impact their own or their family’s health (50%), including larger shares of Democrats (68% and 64% respectively), Hispanic adults (71% and 70%), Black adults (63% and 65%), and those with lower household incomes (63% for both). Health concerns seem to have increased somewhat since January, when one-third of adults said they were concerned they or a family member would get sick from bird flu.

Trust in CDC and Awareness of Recommended Precautions

There has been a lot of change for key health agencies over the past few weeks with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as the Trump administration’s downsizing of the federal workforce and the firing (and attempted rehiring) of some employees working on bird flu for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Amid these changes, the CDC remains one of the federal government agencies with primary responsibility for communicating with the public about emerging public health threats. Overall, nearly six in ten adults trust the CDC “a great deal” (21%) or “a fair amount” (38%) to provide reliable information about bird flu, while about four in ten adults say they either don’t trust the CDC “much” (29%) or “at all” (13%).

A KFF poll conducted before Robert F. Kennedy’s confirmation as HHS Secretary showed that most Republicans trusted him to make the right recommendations when it comes to health issues, while few Democrats or independents felt the same. Despite this, and Kennedy’s new position at HHS overseeing the CDC, partisan patterns in trust in the CDC for bird flu information mirror trust in the agency since the COVID-19 pandemic, with Democrats and independents expressing much higher levels of trust than Republicans. This poll – conducted the week after Kennedy’s confirmation – finds that majorities of Democrats (72%) and independents (61%) trust the CDC at least “a fair amount” to provide reliable information on bird flu, while fewer (42%) Republicans say the same. This partisan divide on trust in the CDC is consistent with divisions in trust in the agency on health issues in recent years, but represents a shift from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when trust in the CDC and other health agencies was high across partisans.

Many Are Unaware or Unsure of Current Public Health Recommendations on Bird Flu

At this time, the CDC recommends avoiding close contact with sick animals and avoiding unpasteurized milk products as precautions against bird flu, while eggs purchased from grocery stores are considered safe, and wearing masks in public spaces is not currently recommended for the general public as a bird flu precaution. This poll finds the public largely unaware or unsure which precautions are currently recommended to protect themselves from bird flu.

About four in ten adults are aware that avoiding close contact with sick animals (45%) and avoiding unpasteurized or raw milk products (39%) are recommended by public health officials as precautions against bird flu, though half of the public says they are “not sure” if these are recommended. Few (7% and 11% respectively) incorrectly say these precautions are not recommended by public health officials.

About half of the public is aware that public health agencies are not recommending avoiding eggs from a grocery store for bird flu prevention, but about four in ten (44%) are unsure of whether this is recommended. Similarly, the public is also divided on whether public health officials are recommending that people wear masks in crowded public spaces to prevent bird flu, with one in five (19%) saying it is recommended, about one-third (35%) saying it is not recommended for bird flu prevention and half (47%) saying they are unsure.

Although similar shares of adults across partisans are unsure about most of the precautions asked about in this survey, awareness diverges slightly on the issue of unpasteurized milk. There is large public health consensus that pasteurization of milk is crucial for killing foodborne bacteria and viruses that can cause illness in humans, and there is no evidence for health benefits to consuming raw milk. Given that H5N1 bird flu has infected dairy cows across the U.S., raw milk consumption is even more dangerous. HHS Secretary Kennedy has said he drinks raw milk, has criticized the FDA’s regulation of the product, and has called for the removal of a ban on interstate sale of raw milk, which may increase consumption. A larger share of Democrats (47%) compared with independents (38%) and Republicans (34%) are aware that public health officials recommend avoiding raw milk. At least half of independents (52%) and Republicans (55%) say they are not sure if this is recommended. However, few across partisans say avoiding unpasteurized milk is not recommended.

This KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF. The survey was conducted February 18-25, 2025, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,322 U.S. adults in English (1,254) and in Spanish (68). The sample includes 1,014 adults (n=53 in Spanish) reached through the SSRS Opinion Panel either online (n=992) or over the phone (n=22). The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative probability-based panel where panel members are recruited randomly in one of two ways: (a) Through invitations mailed to respondents randomly sampled from an Address-Based Sample (ABS) provided by Marketing Systems Groups (MSG) through the U.S. Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence (CDS); (b) from a dual-frame random digit dial (RDD) sample provided by MSG. For the online panel component, invitations were sent to panel members by email followed by up to three reminder emails.

Another 308 (n=15 in Spanish) adults were reached through random digit dial telephone sample of prepaid cell phone numbers obtained through MSG. Phone numbers used for the prepaid cell phone component were randomly generated from a cell phone sampling frame with disproportionate stratification aimed at reaching Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black respondents. Stratification was based on incidence of the race/ethnicity groups within each frame. Among this prepaid cell phone component, 140 were interviewed by phone and 168 were invited to the web survey via short message service (SMS).

Respondents in the prepaid cell phone sample who were interviewed by phone received a $15 incentive via a check received by mail. Respondents in the prepaid cell phone sample reached via SMS received a $10 electronic gift card incentive. SSRS Opinion Panel respondents received a $5 electronic gift card incentive (some harder-to-reach groups received a $10 electronic gift card). In order to ensure data quality, cases were removed if they failed two or more quality checks: (1) attention check questions in the online version of the questionnaire, (2) had over 30% item non-response, or (3) had a length less than one quarter of the mean length by mode. Based on this criterion, no cases were removed.

The combined cell phone and panel samples were weighted to match the sample’s demographics to the national U.S. adult population using data from the Census Bureau’s 2024 Current Population Survey (CPS), September 2023 Volunteering and Civic Life Supplement data from the CPS, and the 2024 KFF Benchmarking Survey with ABS and prepaid cell phone samples. The demographic variables included in weighting for the general population sample are sex, age, education, race/ethnicity, region, civic engagement, frequency of internet use, political party identification by race/ethnicity, and education. The weights account for differences in the probability of selection for each sample type (prepaid cell phone and panel). This includes adjustment for the sample design and geographic stratification of the cell phone sample, within household probability of selection, and the design of the panel-recruitment procedure.

The margin of sampling error including the design effect for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Numbers of respondents and margins of sampling error for key subgroups are shown in the table below. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Sample sizes and margins of sampling error for other subgroups are available on request. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error and there may be other unmeasured error in this or any other public opinion poll. KFF public opinion and survey research is a charter member of the Transparency Initiative of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.