An emergency-room doctor, critics of COVID-19 vaccines and an obstetrician who advises a supplement company are among the advisers handpicked by vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the head of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to provide advice on vaccines to the federal government.

The Trump era is rife with Republicans who abandon their principles in the name of toeing Donald Trump’s line. But few have gambled with those principles recently like Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.