Trump appoints vaccine critic RFK Jr. to Health and Human Services secretary role.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for the position of secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.
• John Kennedy's nephew and late Senator Robert F. Kennedy's son, RFK Jr., is a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist.
• Trump chose Kennedy as his attorney general a day after selecting Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for the same position.

On Thursday, Donald Trump, the president-elect, announced that he plans to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, to head the Health and Human Services Department.

If Kennedy is approved by the Senate, he will lead a department that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. health-care system is significantly impacted by HHS's decisions regarding sped.

Kennedy, 70, is the son of the late U.S. attorney general and Democratic senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while running for president. He is also the nephew of former President John Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.

In October, Trump stated that if he won the election, he would allow Kennedy to have complete freedom in terms of healthcare.

Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services on his Truth Social site on Thursday.

Trump wrote that Americans have been oppressed by the food and drug industries for too long, through deceitful, misleading, and false information regarding public health.

"Ensuring the safety and health of all Americans is the primary responsibility of any administration, and HHS will play a significant role in safeguarding individuals from hazardous substances such as chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the current health crisis in the country."

In a recent interview with NBC News, Kennedy stated that Trump has expressed a desire for him to address corruption at federal health agencies, restore science-based policies, and improve public health in the United States. Kennedy emphasized the need for significant changes, including the elimination of entire departments such as the nutrition department at the FDA.

Earlier Thursday, stock prices of vaccine makers dropped due to reports that Trump planned to appoint Kennedy to the HHS post.

Kennedy proposed that the Covid-19 virus, which the CDC played a significant role in controlling, was intentionally designed to target Caucasians and Black people, while being less harmful to Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese individuals.

He previously advocated for the link between autism and childhood vaccines, a theory that has been debunked.

In August, Trump received an endorsement from Kennedy, which angered many of his siblings who had previously supported him.

Trump chose Kennedy as his attorney general a day after selecting Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for the same position.

The resignation of Gaetz from Congress has led to controversy due to the fact that the Department of Justice previously investigated him for possible sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. Several Republican senators have called on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on the investigation of the former lawmaker.

Last week, it was reported that Kennedy proposed dismissing approximately 600 NIH employees and replacing them.

The "Make America Healthy" website has been soliciting public input on appointing over 4,000 officials to various federal government positions, as proposed by Trump.

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