WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unfounded cancer cures, dubious anti-vaccine narratives, and false claims that neurological disorders can be 'reversed' through diets: influential American and European podcasters are peddling harmful health misinformation while largely escaping scrutiny, researchers say.

The problem will come under the spotlight this week as Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic with a longstanding reputation of promoting health misinformation, faces US Senate grilling over his nomination to be President Donald Trump's health secretary.