Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (1954 - ?), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American environmental lawyer known for promoting anti-vaccine propaganda,[1][2] Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
After growing up in Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts, Kennedy, Jr. graduated from Harvard University and obtained a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career as an assistant district attorney in New York City. In the mid 1980s, he joined Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), two non-profits focused on environmental protection, and became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law, founding the Pace Law School's Environmental Litigation Clinic. He held the post of supervising attorney and co-director of Pace's law clinic until 2017. In 1999, he founded the non-profit environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance, serving as the president of its board.
Since 2005, he has promoted the scientifically discredited link between vaccines and autism,[1][3] Much of Kennedy's public health criticisms and writings have targeted prominent figures such as Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and Joe Biden. He has co-hosted Ring of Fire, a nationally syndicated radio program. He has written books including The Real Anthony Fauci in 2021 and A Letter to Liberals in 2022. In July 2023, Kennedy, Jr. create an entirely new conspiracy theory about the origins of COVID-19; at a private fund-raiser, he said the following (which was captured on video on later published in the New York Post): "“There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”[4] There has never been a shred of evidence that any aspect of his assertion is true.
Kennedy's living blood relations have tried to disassociate themselves from him due to his pushing of various unfounded conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, Kennedy, Jr. is running for president in 2023 as a Democrat and has been raising large amounts of money. Many younger followers do not seem to be aware of his extreme views, because on the campaign trail, he generally presents a very nurturing and appealing view of himself.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mnookin, Seth (January 11, 2017). How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Distorted Vaccine Science (en). “For more than a decade, Kennedy has promoted anti-vaccine propaganda completely unconnected to reality.”
- ↑ Covid's devastation of Black community used as 'marketing' in new anti-vaccine film. NBC News (March 11, 2021). “The video the newest in a series of anti-vaccine propaganda films produced or promoted by Kennedy was distributed through Kennedy's organization, Children's Health Defense,”
- ↑ Smith, Michelle R.. How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19, Associated Press, December 15, 2021. (in en) “Dr. Richard Allen Williams, a cardiologist, professor of medicine at UCLA and founder of the Minority Health Institute, said Kennedy is leading 'a propaganda movement'”
- ↑ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests covid was designed to spare Jews, Chinese people, Washington Post, July 15, 2023.