Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, ran as an independent in the most recent US presidential election before suspending his campaign in August to throw his support behind Trump. While speaking at a campaign rally last month, Trump suggested that Kennedy would oversee a public health portfolio, telling the audience he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health and medicines if he were to be re-elected.

Meanwhile, as rumours swirled earlier in the day over Kennedy joining the Trump administration in a health leadership role, an NBC report citing anonymous sources suggested FDA staff were considering leaving the agency over concerns about his appointment.

‘Not going to take away anybody’s vaccines’

When pressed on his controversial vaccine stance in an NBC interview after the election last week, Kennedy said, “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines. I’ve never been anti-vaccine… People ought to have choice and that choice ought to be informed by the best information, so I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy [studies] are out there so people can make individual assessments.”

He also suggested there would be downsizing at certain federal health agencies, saying that there are “some categories of workers” at the FDA, like the nutrition department, that “have to go.”

For his part, outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has expressed uncertainty about the agency’s future. Speaking at the Friends of Cancer Research annual meeting earlier this week, Califf said, “I do think it’s pretty clear that the gist of this administration, from everything that’s been said, is to change a lot of things, and how it gets changed depends on who gets appointed into key positions and how the various policies play out.”

“People are waiting to see,” he said. “From things that have been said, the change could happen internally, or external, decisions made by the administration. We have to wait and see and have some faith that hard-working, high-quality people are going to still be in place, and will have support, I hope, from the external regulated community.”