Nearly all former NFL players from the '88 season are parents. Most say they encouraged their children to play tackle football if they expressed interest. Just 7% say they discouraged their children.

Even though former NFL players are divided on the risks of youth football, most say they oppose banning tackle football below the high school level. Notably, the survey found that most players think the sport is safer now than when they played.

KFF and ESPN's recent poll of former NFL players finds that players are divided on the risks of youth tackle football, with about four in ten saying the risks outweigh the benefits. www.kff.org/kff-espn-sur...

These former NFL players - who are now in their mid-50s to mid-70s - say the game had a negative impact on their physical health but a positive impact on their life in general. Beyond that, the survey finds that nine in ten say if they could go back, they’d do it all again.

Among the now-retired NFL players who played in ’88, much larger shares of Black players compared to White players report living with physical, cognitive, and mental health issues

KFF and ESPN just jointly released an in-depth polling and reporting project looking at health and financial challenges facing former NFL players, who are much more likely to report a wide array of health issues compared to men their age. kff.org/kff-espn-survey-of-nfl-players

And adults in the U.S. are still divided on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines nearly four years since they were first approved. Just over half express confidence in their safety, including far fewer Republicans.

mRNA technology also remains obscure to much of the public, with about half saying they don't know enough about the technology to say whether it is safe or not

With mRNA vaccines coming under attack in some states, KFF's latest poll finds most of the public is uncertain if mRNA vaccines can change your DNA - a commonly circulated myth. Few think this false claim is definitely true, but larger shares are open to believing it on.kff.org/3Z2MaRG

Doctors and pediatricians remain trusted sources of reliable vaccine information among most adults, but other sources are polarizing. Republicans are far more likely than others to trust President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for vaccine info and are as likely to trust them as their own doctor

Meanwhile, Democrats' trust in the CDC and FDA for vaccine information has dropped by about 20 percentage points from where it stood under the Biden administration, while Republican trust has risen by about ten points -- a notable reversal of partisan trends that began during the COVID-19 pandemic

Fewer than half of the public express confidence in government health agencies to carry out key tasks, with partisans mostly in agreement. Per KFF's latest poll: www.kff.org/health-information-and-trust/poll-finding/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-vaccine-safety-and-trust/

Believing or leaning toward believing false claims about measles is also tied to parents’ choices to vaccinate their children. Among parents who say at least one measles myth is definitely or probably true, a quarter say they have delayed or skipped some vaccines for their children.

Beyond the share of adults who express uncertainty, at least one in five adults believe or lean toward believing false claims about measles and measles vaccines, including at least a third of Republican parents.

Our new KFF tracking poll on health information and trust finds that most Americans have heard false claims about measles and the measles (MMR) vaccines, and at least half of the public are uncertain if these myths are true are not. www.kff.org/health-infor...