RFK Jr. would also have the power, along with the FDA commissioner, to slow down or hamper the process by which new vaccines are evaluated, approved, and recommended. That could discourage pharmaceutical companies from developing new or reformulated vaccines.

Trump's selection is sounding the alarm in the public health community and leaving the biotech and pharmaceutical industries cautious of changes to come.

What happens when the Trump train hits the health care establishment? There’s no doubt that President-elect Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and vaccine critic, as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has thrown the health care sector into disarray.