Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated as the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, saying he was “thrilled” when he announced the anti-vaccine activist would lead the new administration’s health department.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the food industrial complex and the pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deceit, disinformation and disinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump said, adding that Kennedy would “restore these agencies to the traditions of Golden Standard Scientific Research and Beacons of Transparency, to End the Chronic Disease Epidemic and Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Kennedy, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year before switching to an independent bid that he abandoned in support of Trump’s campaign, is one of the most outspoken vaccine critics in the country. Although Trump once called the activist the “dumbest member” of the dynastic family, Kennedy fell into favor after endorsing Trump.

The president-elect had previously suggested that Kennedy would play “a major role” in the federal public health bureaucracy, but his transition team co-chair, Howard Lutnick, shut down rumors that the position would be at HHS.

Is RFK Jr. anti-vaccine?

Despite being against virtually all vaccines, Kennedy has insisted he is not anti-vax and claimed he has never told the public not to get vaccinated.

Kennedy, who is on leave as chairman of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, has long repeated the debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism and when asked if there were safe and effective vaccines on the market, Kennedy told podcaster Lex Fridman his there are ‘no’ vaccines in that category.

Fridman urged Kennedy on the polio vaccine—widely considered one of the other greatest medical advances of the 20th century and estimated to have saved more than 1.5 million lives and prevented paralysis in more than 20 million children—but Kennedy suggested that the vaccine would mean death. more people than it saved.

Kennedy also faced criticism for advocating against COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, as well as for statements he made comparing the lockdowns to Nazi Germany and claiming the virus was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

However, Kennedy has said he has no plans to restrict access to the vaccines he opposes.

When asked last week whether he would take vaccines off the market, Kennedy told MSNBC: “I’m not going to take anyone’s vaccines away. I’ve never been anti-vaccine.”

“If vaccines work for someone, I’m not going to take them away,” he said, adding that “people need to have choice and be informed by the best information, so I’m going to make sure that scientific safety studies and efficacy studies are available and people can individually assess whether that product will be good for them.”

What do infectious disease experts think of Kennedy?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and member of the Trump White House coronavirus task force, revealed this summer that he spoke with Kennedy about vaccines.

While appearing in an episode of The Ax Files with David Axelrod podcast, Fauci recalled that during a presentation, “the first slide I remember (Kennedy) showing is that ‘vaccinations have been shown to be responsible for the following diseases’ and he gave every disease in the world.”

At the end of the meeting, “All we could say was, ‘Bobby, I’m sorry, but we don’t really agree with you.'”

Fauci added that while he didn’t know what was going on in Kennedy’s head, “it’s not good.”

He told Kennedy, “Bobby, I believe you care about children, and you care about not wanting to hurt them, but you have to realize from a scientific point of view that what you’re saying doesn’t make sense.”

Daniel Havlichek, former head of the department of infectious diseases at Michigan State University, previously said this Newsweek“I am concerned that (Kennedy) lacks even marginal scientific and public health training. This would lead to public health decisions based on his hunch about what to do. This is not a good policy.”

He said vaccines have been improving global health for hundreds of years, but despite all efforts, many viruses and diseases for which immunization is available are still “just a plane ride away.”

“We must remain vigilant against these pathogens, and vaccination is a very effective way to protect ourselves and our children,” Havlichek said. “Eliminating these protections without a properly vetted plan is naive.”