Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary is aiming to disrupt the National Institutes of Health, the country's top funder of academic research. Medical doctors and public health officials have condemned the choice.

Others are just getting to know him,” Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, said of her cousin, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for health secretary.

President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr, an environmental advocate and vaccine sceptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to revisit federal vaccine recommendations, take fluoride out of public water and boost access to raw milk, among other goals.

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

In a move guaranteed to alarm many, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal opponent of vaccines and other tenets of mainstream health care, to head the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Get the latest news on the transition to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump and a new Congress.

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

President-elect Donald Trump said he’s tapping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a move that would elevate a prominent vaccine skeptic and pharmaceutical industry critic to a top role on federal health policy.

Kennedy has pledged to "return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science."