Canadian officials and public health experts are warning that US health and science institutions can no longer be depended upon for accurate information, particularly when it comes to vaccinations, amid fears that misinformation from the Trump administration could further erode Canadians’ confidence in healthcare.

“I can’t imagine a world in which this misinformation doesn’t creep into Canadians’ consciousness and leads to doubt,” said Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University in Ontario.

Those fears have emerged as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has forwarded an anti-vaccine agenda. In December, a panel appointed by Kennedy voted to remove a longstanding recommendation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B.

The CDC also updated its website in November at the instruction of Kennedy to claim that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”, which top public health experts have decried as false.

The agency’s move toward misinformation and away from public health leadership makes it more difficult to combat distrust in vaccinations in Canada, says Bowdish.

In December, Canada’s health minister, Marjorie Michel, warned that US health and science institutions can no longer be depended upon for accurate information. In an interview with the Canadian Press, she said: “I cannot trust them as a reliable partner, no.”

Michel also told CBC News that “some” Canadians could be influenced by Kennedy.