President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services will put a prominent vaccine skeptic at the helm of the nation’s expanding public health apparatus.

A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name for himself as an environmental lawyer who successfully took on major corporations, including DuPont and Monsanto.

But over the past two decades, he has increasingly devoted his energy to promoting vaccine claims that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists.

Trump would put Kennedy in charge of a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the Medicare and Medicaid social safety net programs. He said before the election that he would give Kennedy free rein on health care policy.

Here’s a look at Kennedy and the agency he’ll be tasked with leading:

Kennedy defies scientific consensus on vaccines and other issues

He took over the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and turned it into a powerhouse during the COVID-19 pandemic. His activism helped him build a loyal following that he uses in his political activities.

Kennedy insists he is not anti-vaccine and claims he has never told the public to avoid vaccination. But he has repeatedly made clear his opposition to vaccines. He said on a podcast “there is no safe and effective vaccine” and urged people to oppose the CDC’s guidelines on when children should get vaccinated.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could play a key role on public health issues during Trump’s second administration, offered more details about what he would do in that role.

Although there are rare cases of people having severe reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered globally provide real evidence that they are safe. The World Health Organization says vaccines prevent up to 5 million deaths each year.

He wants to eliminate liability protections for drug companies.

Even before Trump was elected, Kennedy said he would recommend that water agencies stop adding fluoride to drinking water. Fluoride strengthens teeth and is regarded as one of the greatest public health successes of the last century.

He has made a variety of other claims that are not supported by science, such as questioning whether HIV causes AIDS and suggesting that antidepressants lead to school shootings.

Children’s Health Defense currently has a lawsuit against a number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID vaccines -19. Kennedy took a leave of absence from the group when he announced his candidacy for president, but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

Wants to overhaul HHS staff

Kennedy has promised to take a hard look at those who work for HHS and its agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He is particularly focused on ending the “revolving door” of employees who have a history of working for pharmaceutical companies or leave government service to work for that industry, his campaign communications manager, Del Bigtree, said last month. for AP. Bigtree is also an anti-vaccine organizer.

He said he wants to lay off 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health, which oversees vaccine research, and replace them with 600 new employees.

Many of the scientists and researchers who work at NIH are not political appointees, which makes firing them suddenly more difficult. However, Kennedy made his promise at the annual Genius Network event in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to a video first obtained by ABC News.

“We have to move quickly, and we want to have those people in place on January 20th, so that on January 21st, 600 people walk into offices at NIH and 600 people leave,” Kennedy said. according to a video of his remarks posted on YouTube.

He says the public health establishment is too focused on infectious diseases and wants to redirect resources to a myriad of problems he characterizes as the chronic disease epidemic, including obesity, diabetes, autism and mental illness. He blames greedy corporations, including drug companies that fear healthy Americans are hurting their bottom line, and food manufacturers that use harmful pesticides and additives.

Kennedy is a descendant of a famous dynasty

Kennedy’s father was Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy. Both men were assassinated.

Kennedy originally ran in the Democratic primary against President Joe Biden before deciding to launch an independent bid. He then suspended that campaign earlier this year and endorsed Trump, who has repeatedly praised Kennedy, promised him influence in a future administration and vowed to “make America healthy again.”

The GOP base has happily welcomed Kennedy since joining forces with Trump, an embrace Kennedy never received from the Democratic Party. His anti-vaccine activism alienated him from much of his famous family.

He is known for his encounters with dead animals – and a dead brain worm

Doctors found a dead parasitic worm in Kennedy’s brain and high levels of mercury that he said caused brain fog and memory problems.

He once retrieved a bear that had been killed by a motorist and left it in New York’s Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city in 2014. One photo showed Kennedy with his fingers in the bear’s bloody mouth, an imitation. grimace on his face and an apparent bloodstain on his leg.

Gus Rosendale reports on RFK Jr. saying he put a dead bear in Central Park.

He denied eating a dog after a friend shared a photo with Vanity Fair showing Kennedy dramatically preparing to bite into a charred animal; Kennedy said it was a goat.

And a federal law enforcement agency opened an investigation after Kennedy allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago. The National Marine Fisheries Service ended the survey a short time later.

Big changes could be in store for the FDA and drug makers

Kennedy’s appointment is sure to be opposed by the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington, which relies on the predictability of science-based FDA rules to bring new drugs to market.

Kennedy’s proposals for the agency bear little resemblance to those of previous Republican administrations, which have typically favored cutting regulations to speed product approvals.

Instead, Kennedy suggested banning drugmakers from advertising on TV, a multibillion-dollar enterprise that accounts for most of the industry’s marketing dollars. He also proposed eliminating the fees drugmakers pay the FDA to review their products, allowing the agency to hire additional scientists to speed up its work. Replacing these funds would require billions in new appropriations from the federal budget.

The independent candidate’s campaign had threatened to overturn the major-party race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

In a post last month on social media platform X, Kennedy vowed to end the FDA’s “aggressive crackdown” on a range of unsubstantiated therapies, including psychedelics and stem cells, as well as discredited COVID-era drugs such as be ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

In recent interviews, Kennedy has also suggested eliminating “the entire department” from the FDA, including the one in charge of nutrition standards.

The appointment rattled political loyalties

Kennedy’s choice was condemned by public health officials and some Democrats in Congress.

“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is not remotely qualified for this role and should be nowhere near the science-based agencies that protect our nutrition, food safety and health,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, the body’s chairman of public health surveillance. group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

But it also won bipartisan support.

“Finally someone to detox the place after the Fauci era,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, wrote on X, referring to Anthony Fauci, the former top public health official who has been demonized by people who oppose vaccines and the government. response to COVID-19.

Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, said he was “thrilled” by Kennedy’s appointment and said it would shake up HHS and the FDA.

“What I am most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health,” Polis wrote on X. Facing backlash, he later added, “Science must remain the cornerstone of health policy. health of our nation.”