Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once said the COVID-19 pandemic felt “very planned,” providing telling insight into the mind of the man who may soon be running U.S. health agencies.
Kennedy’s remark came during a 2020 news conference at the peak of the pandemic, The Bulwark reported Tuesday. The comment was made years before Kennedy announced his presidential run and went unreported at the time.
The resurfaced clip revealed that Kennedy, 70, once flirted with the fringe conspiracy that the 2020 pandemic—which left 1.2 million Americans dead—was the result of a concerted effort by government officials to kill or control citizens.
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Kennedy said he didn’t have “enough evidence” to say outright that the pandemic was purposefully started by a domestic or foreign government, but he suggested there was all the makings of a big conspiracy.
“Many people argue that this pandemic was a ‘plandemic,’ that it was planned from the outset, it’s part of a sinister scheme,” Kennedy said. “I can’t tell you the answer to that. I don’t have enough evidence. A lot of it feels very planned to me. I don’t know. I will tell you this: If you create these mechanisms for control, they become weapons of obedience for authoritarian regimes no matter how beneficial or innocent the people who created them.”
The Bulwark reported that Kennedy went on to compare COVID-19 vaccination efforts to the Nazis testing “vaccines on Gypsies and Jews.” He also reportedly called vaccine drives “a pharmaceutical-driven, biosecurity agenda that will enslave the entire human race and plunge us into a dystopian nightmare.”
Kennedy declined to comment to the outlet, and did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Kennedy’s opposition to many vaccines, including those for COVID-19, has been well-documented. Since joining Donald Trump’s inner circle, he’s also began parroting the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” with a promise of ridding American foods of what he claims is unnecessary additives and chemicals.
The public health community has sounded the alarm that Kennedy—an environmental lawyer turned activist and politician—would be a dangerous pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, as Trump has appointed him to do. Even before the resurfacing of Tuesday’s clip, Kennedy is on the record having described the COVID-19 vaccine as the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Kennedy, if confirmed by the Senate, may soon be leading the very agencies he once theorized may have been purposefully kill or control U.S. citizens. Those agencies include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and National Institutes of Health.
Among those concerned with Trump’s pick is his bud’s own relatives. Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia and daughter of John F. Kennedy, said Sunday that her cousin’s “views on vaccines are dangerous.”
“I grew up with him, so I’ve known all this for a long time,” she said. “Others are just getting to know him.”
