Shares of vaccine makers fell as President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Health policy experts have said a second Trump term could allow Kennedy to elevate anti-vaccine rhetoric.

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).

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

The nearly $2 trillion agency administers health-insurance programs for millions of Americans, approves medications and oversees vaccine safety.

Donald Trump has picked vaccine sceptic and former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr as his health secretary, as the president-elect continues to build his new administration. Kennedy,

President-elect Donald Trump's plan to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department will put a prominent vaccine skeptic at the helm of the nation's sprawling public health apparatus.