President-elect Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Thursday that he has chosen vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump said Kennedy would “restore” agencies under HHS to their “traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research and marks of Transparency” to end the Chronic Disease epidemic and Make America Great and Healthy Again.

HHS oversees major healthcare institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and others.

The work requires Senate approval.

Kennedy suspended his duty He launched an independent presidential campaign and supported Trump in AugustHe said ahead of Election Day: Trump had “promised” himself “control of public health agencies.”

Kennedy gave Trump and his transition team extensive advice on health-related appointments, sources with knowledge of the matter told ABC News. Kennedy has also been seen multiple times at Mar-a-Lago and attended presentations involving candidates for certain Cabinet and health-related jobs, sources said.

Kennedy is a anti-vaccine activist and founded Children’s Health Defense, the leading anti-vaccine nonprofit that campaigns against vaccines and other public health measures such as water fluoridation. medical experts concerns expressed About the increase in medical misinformation due to Kennedy’s candidacy. It is noteworthy that Kennedy falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, even though the study that initially suggested this link was retracted and numerous high-quality studies followed. studies This disproves the theory.

Kennedy publicly stated that he wanted to reduce government overreach, which he often framed as a medical freedom problem.

On the campaign trail, Trump praised Kennedy’s role in helping “fix our health,” but joked that he was concerned about her strong stance on the environment, and Trump said he wanted to keep drilling.

Trump first floated the idea of ​​Kennedy leading his administration’s health efforts at the Al Smith Dinner last month. He said Kennedy would “make us a healthier place.”

“We’re going to let him run wild for a while, and then maybe I’ll have to rein him in because he’s got some pretty crazy ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a good guy and he believes, he believes in the environment, he believes in healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a great chance to do it because we need it.”

Trump and Kennedy We didn’t always get along Both were hurling insults throughout their campaigns.

When Kennedy first signaled plans to enter the 2024 race, Trump said he was confident Kennedy would get President Joe Biden’s votes and called her a far-left liberal.

“Kennedy is and always will be a Radical Left Democrat!!! This is great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very difficult for him to get on the ballot,” Trump said on the social media platform in March.

Kennedy criticized the former president in an April post on

ABC News’ Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.