RFK Jr.'s Stunning Claim About Black People And Vaccines Sparks Concern From Medical Experts [View all]
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Source: Huff Post
Feb 22, 2025, 03:00 AM EST
From COVID-19 conspiracy theories to confusion on the facts about Medicare and Medicaid to refusing to say that vaccines aren’t linked to autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s February confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill were anything but smooth for someone who is hoping to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
While his history of anti-vaccine remarks was a major talking point throughout the hearings, his beliefs were also front and center during a heated exchange in which Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) brought up a comment that Kennedy once made about vaccinations and the Black community. In 2021, Kennedy had said, “We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours.”
Alsobrooks asked Kennedy to explain what he meant by that remark, and he went on to reference a “series of studies” while saying research shows that “Blacks need fewer antigens.” (For the record, experts say that this is not true.) “Right now, how vaccine schedules are tailored is based on things like your age, your exposure risk, if you have other chronic underlying health conditions ― but race isn’t one of them, and there isn’t research that suggests that it should be,” Joel Bervell, a recent medical graduate and medical myth-buster on social media, told HuffPost.
What especially bothered Bervell about Kennedy’s exchange with Alsobrooks was the fact that he doubled down on his comment from 2021. Kennedy could have used this as an opportunity to admit that he needs to do more research and understand the vaccine schedule, “but instead, he defended what he said, which I think, for me, that’s where the problem lies in,” Bervell told HuffPost. “Not necessarily the fact of the misinformation is out there, but the fact that he wasn’t willing to at least confront it or admit that onstage.”
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rfk-jrs-stunning-claim-about-black-people-and-vaccines-sparks-concern-from-medical-experts-ano_l_67b7878ae4b05145b9c4f067
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