Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once proposed that Americans should receive vaccines on different schedules based on their race, according to a bombshell report.
President Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary made the inflammatory claim in a 2021 talk posted to his Children’s Health Defense website, the anti-vaccine nonprofit that has netted him a fortune, the Washington Post reported.
“Now we know that, you know, we should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to Whites, because their immune system is better than ours,” Kennedy said.
The paper’s review of more than 400 of Kennedy’s media appearances since 2020 found that the health secretary nominee has regularly shared misleading claims about vaccines.
He has claimed links between vaccines and autism on at least 36 occasions in public appearances despite scientific evidence debunking such claims, the newspaper reported. On at least 144 occasions, he has broadly rebuked vaccines as dangerous and ineffective, alleging that vaccines “poisoned an entire generation of American children.”
If the Senate confirms RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the Kennedy scion will have unfettered control over the health and welfare of Americans as the country’s first line of defense against pandemics.
However, several senators have indicated that RFK Jr. may face an uphill battle for the job during Wednesday’s scheduled confirmation hearing due to his history of peddling health conspiracy theories.
RFK Jr. also claimed in 2023 that the COVID-19 virus was engineered “to attack Caucasians and Black people,” but not “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
On the heels of his health secretary nomination, dozens of vaccine experts, physicians and public health leaders have expressed alarm that Kennedy doesn’t seem to recognize the basic scientific benefits of vaccines, the Post reported.
Physician Stanley Plotkin, who helped invent vaccines for rubella, rotavirus and other pathogens, told the newspaper, “Making statements is easy, but if you don’t have the evidence, it’s just baloney.”
Plotkin, 92, added that Americans like Kennedy seemed to have forgotten the litany of diseases that Americans suffered through before vaccines.
Beyond America’s borders, RFK Jr.’s vaccine views could impact research and vaccine roll outs overseas that are funded by HHS’ near $1.8 trillion budget.
RFK Jr.’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, urged the Senate on Tuesday not to confirm her “perverse” first cousin.
“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together,” wrote Kennedy in a letter to senators. She is the only living child of assassinated President John F. Kennedy. She added, “It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator.”