CNN’s Jake Tapper turned to gallows humor when talking about Donald Trump’s tapping of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Well America,

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 becoming 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.

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

Washington — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, according to three sources familiar with the selection. Kennedy has a long record of criticizing vaccines, including spreading misleading claims about their safety.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump’s list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.

President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he announced in a social media post. Trump said that Kennedy will "restore" the agencies under HHS "to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research,

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