‘He’s an abomination’: RFK Jr. suggested segregating vaccines by race

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of spreading vaccine misinformation, and the Washington Post has recently revealed he also believes some racist lies about Black people.

The Post published a report of Kennedy’s statements about vaccines ahead of the confirmation hearing which will most likely end with him taking the reins of the Department of Health and Human Services. It makes for sobering reading. Journalists went through 400 of Kennedy’s interviews, speeches and public appearances and found Kennedy believes things about vaccines that are almost laughable, and certainly downright dangerous to ordinary Americans.

But perhaps most dangerous and baffling of all is what Kennedy thinks regarding vaccination and race. “We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to Whites, because their immune system is better than ours,” is the quote the Post uncovered from the website of his anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense.

This kind of “them and us” statement has no place in politics, and furthermore it brings back memories of some of the most shameful episodes of American healthcare. Misconceptions and lies about the pain threshold of Black people led to pain inflicted on them by white doctors, people they should have been able to trust. And this is still going on—it’s particularly a problem when it comes to childbirth.

“To have a secretary of health who would put forth such a false and racist statement is very concerning,” said Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Post piece. X/Twitter users are condemning Kennedy too, despite the fact that the website is almost entirely a far-right echo chamber now. “He’s an abomination,” wrote one person on the platform.

The Post points out that there is no scientific evidence to back up Kennedy’s claim – and indeed there’s no evidence to back up any of his vaccine claims. Kennedy claims there is a link between vaccines and autism, but this link was put about by a long discredited doctor. Countless studies have proved that vaccinating a child does not give them autism. And yet Kennedy continues to peddle this lie, resulting in parents hesitating to vaccinate their children. The amount of damage this can do can scarcely be overstated.

Even Kennedy’s own family have warned America about him. His cousin Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving child of President John F. Kennedy, recently wrote a letter where she called Kennedy a “predator.” She minced no words. “His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed,” she said. “Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children, vaccinating his own kids while building a following, hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.” It beggars belief that Robert F. Kennedy is going to have power over the health of millions of Americans. But unfortunately that’s the world we live in now.