Americans worry about the Trump administration’s ability to contain an ongoing outbreak of measles, while the vast majority of them believe that vaccines for the disease are safe, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Just 31% of respondents in the two-day poll, which closed on May 13, agreed with a statement that the administration is handling the measles outbreak responsibly, while 40% disagreed and the rest were unsure or did not answer the question.

The United States is currently facing its largest single outbreak of measles in 25 years, with the number of cases crossing the 1,000 mark last week.

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine prevents 97% of cases after two doses and high adoption of the MMR vaccine resulted in the disease being declared eliminated in 2000 by the World Health Organization. Nonetheless, vaccination rates among U.S. children have fallen in recent years, which experts attribute to vaccine skepticism and misinformation.
The vast majority of Americans still see the MMR vaccine as safe. Some 86% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said it was safe for children, a marginally higher share than the 84% who said the same in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May 2020, in the early months of the COVID pandemic. Some 13% of respondents in the latest poll said the vaccine was not safe for kids, up marginally from 10% five years earlier.

The latest poll, which surveyed 1,163 U.S. adults nationwide, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Infectious disease experts worry that comments from Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has offered mixed messages about the severity of the disease and the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, may further exacerbate vaccine hesitancy.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the Infectious Diseases Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he was encouraged by the high level of confidence in the MMR vaccine given the messaging from the Trump administration.