The anti-vaccine activist and President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health comes from a famous political family.

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was building up a following with his anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, and became one of the world’s most influential spreaders of fear and distrust around vaccines.

The nearly $2 trillion agency administers health-insurance programs for millions of Americans, approves medications and oversees vaccine safety.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked a prominent vaccine skeptic to lead the nation’s sprawling public health apparatus. Robert F.

Plus: Is Trump signaling a retribution agenda with Gaetz, and other picks for his administration? These and mores stories on The Excerpt.

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In a move guaranteed to alarm many, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal opponent of vaccines and other tenets of mainstream health care, to head the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The choice will roil many public health experts after his years of touting debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.

Shares of major U.S. drugmakers fell on Friday after President-elect Donald Trump picked anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the top U.S. health agency.