Even among the chaos generated by Donald Trump’s recent cabinet picks, one stands out for the extensive suffering and lasting institutional damage it may cause: his choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist, for years gained a loyal and fierce following with his biting condemnations of how the nation’s public health agencies do business.

And I write about public health, pregnancy, and parenting. I have spent many years now writing for a broader audience about science and about how we can use data to make better decisions. And my fundamental core belief is that people are going to make better decisions if they have the information to make those decisions,