Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, faced grilling from Democrats and at least one Republican on day two of his Senate confirmation hearing. One Democrat declared RFK Jr.’s views on vaccinations and immunity “dangerous” after he claimed Black people have stronger immune systems than White people.
“You said the following, and I quote: ‘We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to Whites, because their immune system is better than ours.’ Can you please explain what you meant?” U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) asked (video below), after quoting Kennedy’s remarks about Black people and vaccines back to him.
“There’s a series of studies, I think most of them by [Andrew] Pollard that the particular antigens that show that Blacks have a much stronger reaction. There’s differences in reaction to different products by different races,” Kennedy responded, a claim he has made before.
“So what different vaccine schedule would you say, I should have received?” Senator Alsobrooks asked.
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“Well, I mean, the Pollard article suggests that Blacks need fewer antigens —”
“This is so dangerous,” the Maryland Democrat Senator replied. “Mr. Kennedy with all due respect, that is so dangerous.”
“Your voice would be a voice that parents would listen to, that is so dangerous,” Alsobrooks continued. “I will be voting against your nomination because your views are dangerous to our state and to our country.”
On the website for his anti-vaccine non-profit’s website, Kennedy made that and other similar statements.
“As it turns out, blacks have a much more robust immune system than whites,” the website’s exact transcript of Kennedy’s remarks during an interview reads. “We now know this because there was a guy called Andrew Pollard who is on their side, and he works for the Mayo Clinic, and he’s done these studies. And what he’s found out is that blacks only need half of the antigen that whites do. So if you’re trying to immunize black for measles, if you’re trying to immunize a white person, you need to give a certain amount of the measles virus to them, the dead virus or the live virus. For a black, they’ll get the same immune response if they get half that now.”
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The Washington Post this week reported that Kennedy “has repeatedly disparaged vaccines, falsely linked themto autism and argued that White and Black people should have separate vaccination schedules, according to a Washington Post review of his public statements from recent years.”
The Post, highlighting Kennedy’s remarks that Black people’s immune systems are better than White people’s, reported: “Several experts said no scientific basis exists to support that claim.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
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