Last September, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in an op-ed that “restoring public trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (CDC) was one of his primary objectives as Health Secretary. Based on the latest survey data from KFF, he is not succeeding. From December 2020 to September 2023, the percentage of Americans who have at least a fair amount of trust that the CDC provides reliable information on vaccines dropped 10 points, affirming Secretary Kennedy’s point that trust needed to be restored. Since then, it has dropped another 16 points, with the most rapid decline occurring after Trump was sworn in for his second term and began implementing the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. Much of this decline is partisan, as Democrats tend to distrust Republican-led agencies and vice versa, but it is notable that even Republicans’ trust in the CDC’s vaccine recommendations has declined since Trump’s inauguration. The public certainly has specific trust issues with vaccines, which were polarized in the wake of the pandemic in no small part thanks to Secretary Kennedy and his ideological allies, resulting in state and local health officials losing credence since Trump was elected as well. But vaccines may only be a bellwether for a larger breakup of societal consensus. Alongside declining vaccination rates, we have also seen reduced trust in physicians and hospitals, the American mass media, and even one’s neighbors in recent years. Zooming out further, trust in the “American People” itself has been in decline for decades.