President-elect Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, in a move that is expected to rattle the federal public health agencies that Mr. Kennedy has blamed for deceiving the public about drugs, vaccines, and healthcare.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump said in a statement on Thursday. “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. Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent candidate before dropping out of the race in August, became a staunch Trump supporter and influential part of his campaign in the final months leading up to the election.

In a September interview with the publisher of The New York Sun, Dovid Efune, Mr. Kennedy declared that his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, President Kennedy, both would have no home in today’s Democratic party and that their policies would align “much closer” with Trump’s. 

With a rallying cry of “Make America Healthy Again,” Mr. Kennedy has vowed to upend the national health bureaucracy and put a stop to the “chronic disease epidemic in this country.” 

“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said.

“Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!,” he concluded in his statement. 

Mr. Kennedy has faced widespread criticism from the public health establishment, and the prospect of him holding a high-up position has reportedly prompted some health bureaucrats to consider leaving their roles. 

Despite the criticism, much of it because of his outspoken vaccine skepticism, Mr. Kennedy has maintained that people should be able to make their own choices about vaccines. “If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” he said last week, per NBC News. “So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”