Robert Kennedy Jr, prominent vaccine sceptic, to head Trump commission on vaccine safety

President-elect Donald Trump has asked Robert Kennedy Jr., a Democrat and nephew of President John F Kennedy, to chair a presidential commission on vaccine safety. Kennedy, an environmental activist and vaccine critic, accepted.

Trump met with Kennedy on Tuesday in New York. Both have questioned whether vaccines cause autism, a claim consistently debunked by medical professionals across the board.

Robert F Kennedy JR says Trump asked him to chair a commission on vaccine safety and he agreed. Has lobbied for vaccine exemptions.

— Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) January 10, 2017

Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer said that the president-elect and Kennedy discussed “issues pertaining to vaccines and immunizations.”

Trump asks vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead U.S. safety panelhttps://t.co/3eQCRTg7dcpic.twitter.com/IXbipmO1XV

— Bloomberg (@business) January 10, 2017

Trump has repeatedly shared his belief that there is a link between vaccines and autism.

“I am totally in favor of vaccines,” Mr. Trump said in a 2015 GOP primary debate, according to CBS. “But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump – I mean, it looks just like it’s meant for a horse, not for a child, and we’ve had so many instances, people that work for me. … [in which] a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back and a week later had a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”

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