Kennedy has long been a proponent of the thoroughly-debunked theory that vaccines cause Autism yet Trump selected him to lead a commission whose goal is making sure that "we have scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects," Kennedy told reporters Tuesday. He also stated that the PEOTUS "has some doubts about the current vaccine policies and he has questions about it. His opinion doesn't matter, but the science does matter and we ought to be reading the science and we ought to be debating the science."

Here's a kid suffering from German Measles, in case you've forgotten.

Kennedy has repeatedly and publicly professed that a preservative used in vaccines causes autism. He has produced no evidence that this claim is valid. His rejection of overwhelming scientific evidence regarding vaccine efficiency will put your children's lives at risk. As we've seen multiple times before, whenever people stop vaccinating, we get disease outbreaks. It's why mumps cases in the US quadrupled last year, why Measles made their way back to NYC in 2014 and why Whooping Cough reemerged in California in 2013.

Here's a kid suffering from smallpox, which cannot be treated, only prevented through vaccination, in case you've forgotten.

That's very frightening, it's difficult to imagine anyone less qualified to serve on a commission for vaccine science," Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told the Washington Post. "The science is clear: massive evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism, and as both a scientist who develops vaccines for poverty related neglected diseases and the father of an adult daughter with autism, there's not even any plausibility for a link. Autism is a genetic condition."

Here's a kid suffering from Mumps, in case you've forgotten.

This appointment is just one more example of the incoming administration's utter disregard and complete rejection of mainstream science. They've already threatened to shut down NASA's Earth Observation programs, defund regulatory agencies and openly support the House Science Committee's laughable anti-science stance. So, sure, why not put a guy who thinks vaccines cause Autism because reasons in charge of a commission investigating the safety of vaccines. What could possibly go wrong?

Update: The Trump Transition team tells CNN that "no decision has been made," despite the video of Kennedy telling reporters gathered in Trump tower that the offer had been extended.