US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
It would put Mr Kennedy in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programmes Medicare and Medicaid.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Mr Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment.
Mr Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Mr Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Mr Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Mr Trump have since become good friends, with Mr Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Mr Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico on Thursday.
A longtime vaccine sceptic, Mr Kennedy is a lawyer who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies.
He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the US, promising to model regulations imposed in Europe.
In a nod to Mr Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Mr Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food.
Mr Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Mr Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising questions about his ability to get confirmed, even in a Republican-controlled Senate.
Mr Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
He has also said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water.
The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country.
It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programmes and the National Institutes of Health.
Mr Kennedy’s anti-vaccine non-profit group, Children’s Health Defence, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organisations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about Covid-19 and Covid-19 vaccines.
Mr Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its lawyers in the lawsuit.
