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Jessica Biel has appeared to come out in support of the anti-vaccination movement.

The actress was pictured at the California State Assembly alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a well known “anti-vaxxer".

In a series of pictures posted on Instagram, Kennedy described Biel as “courageous”.

He later told The Daily Beast that the duo had been lobbying against a California state bill that would limit exemptions from vaccinations.

He posted on Instagram: “Please say thank you to the courageous @jessicabiel for a busy and productive day at the California State House".

Biel has not commented.

The head of the NHS warned in April that vaccine refusal is a “growing public health time bomb”.

A Unicef report found an estimated 21.1 million children around the world missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine between 2010 and 2017 - around 169 million in total.

The US has the highest number of unprotected children, with more than 2.5 million missing out on a measles vaccine.

Kenned Jr. later claimed in an interview that stricter measures against doctors who allow parents not to vaccinate their children without a legitimate medical reason had left Biel “upset about this issue because of its particular cruelty”.

“I would say that she was for safe vaccines and for medical freedom,” he told The Daily Beast.

Sinner actress Biel is married to singer Justin Timberlake and the couple have a 4-year old son Silas Randall.

When the Unicef report was released, executive director Henrietta Fore said: "The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children.

"If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike."

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, warned: "Getting yourself and your children vaccinated against killer diseases is essential to staying healthy, and vaccine rejection is a serious and growing public health timebomb.

"With measles cases almost quadrupling in England in just one year, it is grossly irresponsible for anybody to spread scare stories about vaccines, and social media firms should have a zero tolerance approach towards this dangerous content."