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.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee would oversee agencies that regulate food, vaccines and medicine and were instrumental during the pandemic.

Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services is poised to become the most powerful Kennedy in decades. Here's a look into his share of the family fortune.

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

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

Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services spooked investors who worry what Kennedy would do.

Kennedy junior is not remotely qualified for the role,” said Dr Peter Lurie, president of the Centre for Science in Public Interest, a public-health watchdog, in a statement, adding that “nominating an anti-vaxxer like Kennedy to HHS is like putting a Flat Earther at the head of NASA .