Anti-vaxxer RFK Jr says he is definitely still leading a Trump investigation into vaccine safety- and claims president is willing to take on Big Pharma over issue

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the vaccine skeptic who President Trump has put in charge of a 'vaccine safety and scientific integrity,' says the president told him he was 'not going to back down' on the issue.

Kennedy and Trump have have raised suspicions about vaccines despite their overwhelming support among scientists and physicians as a way to prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

Kennedy says Trump told him that his own beliefs about a supposed link between vaccines and autism, which is not backed up by the vast majority of scientists, was shaped by his anecdotal observations of five friends of his. 

Trump told Kennedy the children of the five friends 'changed' after getting vaccines, and the president 'said he wanted to make sure we had the safest vaccines and a regulatory process with integrity,' Politico reported.

THIS MIGHT STING A LITTLE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gestures while entering the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan in January, when then President-elect Trump asked him to chair a commission on vaccine safety

Trump also girded Kennedy for pushback. 

 'The president told me, 'I know the pharma industry is going to cause an uproar about this, and try to make me back down, and I'm not going to back down,' Kennedy said at a press event in Washington. 'They tried during the campaign and I didn't back down and I'm not going to back down.''

Kennedy said the commission would be made up of 'Americans of the highest integrity' such as CEOs and 'doctors on television.'

Trump spoke about the supposed vaccine and autism link on the campaign trail, and spoke briefly about autism during a meeting with Education Secretary Betsy deVos this week after a special ed teacher raised the issue.  

'Have you seen a big increase in the autism,' Trump asked her. 

OUCH: Kennedy says Trump told him that his own beliefs about a supposed link between vaccines and autism, which is not backed up by the vast majority of scientists, was shaped by his anecdotal observations of five friends of his

STICK IT TO ME: Kennedy said the president told him to expect pushback from the pharmaceutical industry but that 'I'm not going to back down'

WHAD DO THEY KNOW? A group of 350 medical and pro-vaccine groups wrote President Trump this week touting the efficacy of vaccines

'What's going on with autism, when you look at the tremendous increase, it's such an incredible – that's really a a horrible thing to watch, the tremendous amount of increase,' Trump said.

'Well, maybe we can do something,' Trump said.

RFK, Jr. said when he met with Trump about the issue at Trump Tower in January,  White House aides Steven Bannon, Stephen Miller and Vice President Mike Pence all participated.

Kennedy said he had been meeting with staff about the commission he will lead 'many times,' and that they have been 'trading documents about what the commission would look like.'

After he met with Trump in January, Kennedy said the commission's purpose would be 'to make sure we have scientific integrity in the vaccine process for efficacy and safety effects.'

Scientists and physicians overwhelming support vaccines as a way to prevent the spread of deadly diseases that can infect infants and other children when the pool of protected people is diminished. 

A group of 350 medical associations and other groups that promote the scientific benefit of vaccines wrote Trump on Tuesday. Signatories included the Academic Pediatric Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American College of Physicians, and the National Association of County and City Health Officials. 

'Vaccines protect the health of children and adults and save lives,' they wrote. 

'They prevent life-threatening diseases, including forms of cancer. Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are one of the most significant medical innovations of our time.'

The letter continued: 'Because of the introduction of mass vaccinations, smallpox was declared eradicated from the world in 1977. Polio, a disease that routinely afflicted 13,000 to 20,000 Americans every year in the United States before the availability of the vaccine, was officially eliminated from the Western Hemisphere in 1991. Globally, vaccines prevent the deaths of roughly 2.5 million children per year.1 And, data shows that just for children born in the United States in 2009, routine childhood immunizations will prevent approximately 42,000 early deaths and 20 million cases of disease with savings of more than $82 billion in societal costs.'