Throughout the second affirmation listening to for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he was questioned about his rhetoric surrounding vaccines and race. Newly elected Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks requested that Kennedy clear up his earlier feedback on it — which had been downright scary.
Alsobrooks was elected in November as one in every of solely two Black ladies within the Senate. She requested President Donald Trump’s Well being Secretary nominee to clarify his previous declare that Black folks shouldn’t be given “the identical vaccine schedule that’s given to Whites as a result of their immune system is healthier than ours,” per MSNBC.
Kennedy claimed {that a} “collection of research” in Poland confirmed that Black people have “a a lot stronger response” to “explicit antigens.”
Alsobrooks challenged this notion by responding: “Let me simply ask you then…What completely different vaccine schedule would you say I ought to have acquired?”
Kennedy insisted that the Poland examine implied that Black folks require fewer antigens of their system. This reasoning could affect some from getting essential vaccines. Alsobrooks referred to as him out over this fallacy.
“Mr. Kennedy, with all due respect, that’s so harmful,” she acknowledged. “Your voice could be a voice that oldsters hearken to, that’s so harmful. I shall be voting in opposition to your nomination as a result of your views are harmful to our state and to our nation.”
In response to NPR, Kennedy apparently cited work by the Mayo Clinic crew pertaining to variations in vaccination immune response by race. The info confirmed a better antibody response amongst Black folks after the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccination compared to White folks.
Nevertheless, the examine’s creator acknowledged that Kennedy’s suggestion of various vaccination schedules for Black folks could be “twisting the information far past what they really show.”
Kennedy’s affirmation hearings got here after his cousin Caroline Kennedy despatched a damning letter to senators which she referred to as him a “predator” and “unqualified” to steer the Division of Well being and Human Companies.