NIH director, after Trump nominates RFK Jr. for HHS secretary, says discouraging vaccinations is 'disturbing'

"Could you tell me what would be the downside if our children specifically were not vaccinated?" Frankel asked Bertagnolli. 

"And it's been even in my career, my lifetime that I have also seen individuals who unfortunately were in the womb when their mother got rubella - terrible congenital malformations that happened. So it's not just the consequences even for the individual - it can be mother to child and then finally across society when we see the spread of infectious disease," Bertagnolli continued. 

"What we will see immediately if all vaccination suddenly stops, we will see much more severe illness and death in children," she also said. 

Kennedy rose to prominence as a skeptic of vaccines, voicing concerns about their impact. 

"Look around the world because there are other places in the world that have this, that do not have widespread vaccination of their populations, and look at the tragedies that we see there. I think it would be very disturbing," Bertagnolli added Tuesday. 

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., has called the choice of RFK Jr. to lead HHS "f------ insane." 

"The RFK as Health Secretary appointment is f------ insane," he wrote on X. "He's a vaccine denier and a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist. He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives." 

Kennedy aligned with Trump after ending his own independent run for president, and Trump added the promise "make America healthy again" to his campaign.

Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.