The Irony of RFK Jr.’s Run for the Presidency

The son of a civil rights icon often directs vaccine misinformation towards African Americans

On April 5, 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, filed federal paperwork to run for President of the United States as a Democrat. If elected, he would have to leave his day job, which is the head of an anti-vaccine, anti-science organization called the Children’s Health Defense.

RFK Jr. has used the millions of dollars donated to the Children’s Health Defense organization every year to promote false notions such as:

• Thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative in vaccines was toxic, even though seven studies comparing children who received thimerosal-containing vaccines with those receiving thimerosal-free vaccines showed no differences.

• The combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism, even though 18 studies performed in seven countries on three continents costing tens of millions of dollars showed that children receiving the MMR vaccine were not at greater risk of autism than those who didn’t receive the vaccine. RFK Jr. still doesn’t believe these issues have been adequately studied.

Believing that a vast international conspiracy of academic researchers, public health officials, and pharmaceutical companies were hiding the truth, RFK Jr. has consistently rejected the science that has refuted his claims.

When the pandemic hit, RFK Jr. turned his attention to Covid-19 vaccines, claiming that “the flu shot is 2.4 times more deadly than Covid-19,” and that COVID vaccines are “the deadliest vaccines ever made.” To dissuade parents in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from vaccinating their children, RFK Jr. said, “It is criminal medical malpractice to give a child one of these vaccines”—a message that likely contributed to that community’s low immunization rates.

Arguably, no group, however, has suffered more at the hands of RFK Jr.’s misinformation campaign than African Americans.     

In July 2020, to dissuade African Americans from being vaccinated, Kennedy claimed that “people with African American blood react differently to vaccines than people with Caucasian blood; they’re much more sensitive.” In 2021, Kennedy debuted a propaganda film focusing on African Americans titled Medical Racism: The New Apartheid, which claimed that COVID vaccines were an experiment on Black Americans, while at the same time claiming that Blacks have a very powerful immune system, implying that Blacks, therefore, don’t need to be vaccinated. RFK Jr.’s attacks on vaccines for African Americans came at a time when they were more likely to die from Covid-19 than their White counterparts.

Ironically, RFK Jr.’s outsized impact in the African American community owes largely to his last name: Kennedy.

In an article written in Politico titled The Most Trusted White Man in Black America, Robert F. Kennedy biographer Larry Tye outlined the makings of a civil rights icon. A man who was an impetus behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. RFK was trusted by the African American community. And so, by extension, is his son.

In December 2021, RFK Jr.’s wife insisted that guests who attended a holiday party at his home either get tested or get vaccinated before entry. Like many anti-vaccine activists, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his family seek the benefit of protection from vaccines while at the same time urging others to avoid vaccination, leaving them and their families at risk.

RFK Jr. was given a gift—the gift of the Kennedy name. His father used that gift to do an enormous amount of good. The son, however, cannot claim the same.