RFK Jr’s controversial comment about black people ‘not needing the same vaccines’ as white people has sparked widespread condemnation from top doctors.
The 71-year-old claimed four years ago that ‘vaccine schedules’ should be tailored to different races because black people have ‘better immune systems.’
‘We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours,’ he said in February 2021.
The comment came back to haunt him during his confirmation hearings to become America’s next Health Secretary amid a fiery exchange with a Democrat Senator.
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who is black, grilled RFK Jr about the remark while asking him how he thought she should have been vaccinated differently.
RFK Jr referred to some papers suggesting people of African-American ancestry had a stronger immune response to measles and rubella vaccines than white people.
‘Mr Kennedy, with all due respect, that is so dangerous,’ Alsobrooks hit back. ‘Your voice would be a voice that parents would listen to, that is so dangerous.
‘I will be voting against your nomination because your views are dangerous to our state and to our country.’
Several top doctors have since spoken out to condemn RFK Jr’s comment as inaccurate. Primary care physician Dr. Oni Blackstock blasted it as ‘scientific racism’.
RFK Jr’s controversial comment about black people ‘not needing the same vaccines’ as white people has sparked widespread condemnation from top doctors
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who is black, grilled RFK Jr about the remark while asking him how he thought she should have been vaccinated differently
‘The comment that [Kennedy] made about the vaccine schedule, it’s basically scientific racism, which has been debunked,’ Blackstock told HuffPost.
‘He’s really perpetuating this false belief that Black people are somehow biologically different from white people and, in that way, justifying differential and ultimately unequal treatment for Black people versus white people.’
Joe Bervell, a recent medical graduate and medical myth-buster on social media, told HuffPost there’s no evidence that vaccine schedules should take race into account.
‘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,’ he said.
‘In medicine, in science, we know that race is a social construct, meaning that you can’t look at someone’s genes and identify what race they are.’
Bervell said it was disturbing that RFK Jr had doubled down on his 2021 comment just as he approaches the seat of power in the Health Department.
‘He defended what he said, which I think, for me, that’s where the problem lies – 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,’ he said.
Bervell added that RFK Jr’s remark placed on ‘one of the larger stages in health care this notion that race-based medicine should still exist, when that’s actually what many scientists recently have been trying to root out’.
RFK Jr is known for his controversial views about vaccines, including spreading the false claim that certain jabs can cause autism.
He was confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary last week after Senators voted 52-48 to approve President Donald Trump’s choice of leader.
RFK Jr is known for his controversial views about vaccines, including spreading the false claim that certain jabs can cause autism
The CDC has scrubbed its successful ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign, an analogy for how the shot ‘tames’ a potentially severe illness
In one of his first moves in the role, RFK Jr pulled promotional ads for vaccines and postponed a meeting of key vaccine advisors.
He ordered the CDC to scrub its digital ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign that juxtaposed a lion next to a kitten as an analogy for how the shot ‘tames’ the virus.
The campaign was a response to falling flu vaccination rates and an especially vicious flu season.
But Kennedy wants the CDC to move away from nudge tactics and focus its vaccine communications on ‘informed consent’ – which involves telling the patient the medical risks and benefits and letting them come to their own decision.
Meanwhile, the year’s first meeting of the CDC’s influential panel of vaccine experts has been delayed indefinitely, marking the first time the meeting has been postponed in over 40 years, except for during the emergency Covid pandemic.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was due to meet next week to discuss its recommendations on shots for Covid, meningococcal virus, influenza, RSV, HPV, and monkeypox.
The orders, which come at the tail-end of Kennedy’s first week as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, have sparked worry among some health professionals.
