• What Happened: A Rasmussen poll of 1,158 likely voters finds 56% believe COVID vaccine side effects likely caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Only 35% disagree.
  • Why It Matters: 42% want CDC employees fired. Skepticism crosses party lines — 70% of Republicans, 54% of independents, and 46% of Democrats agree. RFK Jr.'s 45% favorability reflects the shift.
  • Bottom Line: What they called a conspiracy theory is now the majority view. Americans want answers, and they want accountability.

For years, anyone who questioned the COVID vaccines was called a conspiracy theorist, banned from social media, and told to shut up. A new Rasmussen poll suggests most Americans no longer believe the people doing the silencing.

The survey of 1,158 likely U.S. voters, conducted September 7-9, 2025, finds that 56% believe it is likely that side effects from COVID-19 vaccines caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Nearly one-third, 32%, say it is very likely. Only 35% of Americans still dismiss the idea entirely.

That is not a fringe position. That is the majority view of the American electorate.

The numbers do not stop there. Half of voters, 50%, say government health officials deserve criticism for their handling of the pandemic. Forty-two percent say CDC employees should be fired for their role in what they view as misleading the public. Among those who strongly believe the vaccines caused deaths, that number jumps above 70%.

The skepticism is not limited to one party or one demographic. Seventy percent of Republicans believe the vaccines likely caused deaths, but so do 54% of independents and 46% of Democrats. Black voters came in at 64% and Hispanic voters at 57%, both higher than the white respondent rate of 54%.

RFK Jr.'s rise at HHS makes sense in this context. The man spent years being ridiculed by the medical establishment for raising vaccine safety questions. Forty-five percent of voters now view him favorably, with strong support among Republicans and independents.

The shift in public opinion reflects a broader collapse of trust in federal health institutions. The CDC, FDA, and NIH spent the pandemic demanding compliance, crushing dissent, and dismissing concerns that millions of Americans were watching play out in real time around them. Now those same Americans have been polled, and they have rendered their verdict.

The establishment called it misinformation. The American people called it what they saw. And now the Rasmussen numbers make clear who won that argument in the court of public opinion.

Accountability is overdue.