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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is facing widespread criticism from political leaders and civil rights organizations after a video surfaced of him making false claims that COVID-19 was designed to attack certain ethnic groups while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people — a conspiracy theory that drew accusations of antisemitism and racism.

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[-] Arotrios@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Keep calling out this deranged motherfucker. He's responsible for countless deaths:

During the pandemic, Kennedy has become a near-ubiquitous source of false information about COVID-19 and vaccines. Earlier this year, Kennedy was named one of the “Disinformation Dozen” by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which says he and the Children’s Health Defense website are among the top spreaders of false information about vaccines online.

....note that the Children's Heath Defense organization is Kennedy's personal charity, and...

The AP found links to Children’s Health Defense articles all over Facebook. While many were shared as posts on the pages of fellow anti-vaccine activists, many more could be found in the comments sections on pages that people turn to for reliable information, including official government Facebook pages in all 50 states, and in health departments in nearly every state.
“The vaccine was not created to save us all from a pandemic. The pandemic was created to get us to take the vaccine and more,” one person wrote in February below a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Facebook post.
Then, they linked to a January Children’s Health Defense article that claimed 329 deaths following the COVID-19 shot had been reported to VAERS, a federal vaccine safety surveillance system that has been misused by anti-vaccine activists.
“Every Friday, the true American hero Robert F Kennedy Jr. pulls the data from the VAERS report. Here is the latest up until 1/22,” the commenter wrote. Another user replied that the comment had been reported for dishonesty, but it was still up 10 months later.

...as a result:

Since January, Children’s Health Defense’s COVID-19 vaccine-related posts were shared more frequently on Twitter than links to vaccine content on mainstream sites including CNN, Fox News, NPR and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, which tracks COVID-19 vaccine-related content on Twitter. In some weeks, it found, CHD COVID-19 vaccine content was shared more often than that of The New York Times and The Washington Post.

AP Sauce

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Just out of curiosity, there wouldn't happen to be a Sirhan Sirhan Jr., would there...?

[-] Arotrios@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

You know what's really weird? RFK supported Sirhan Sirhan's release - went against his entire family to do so too. I think the guy has some dark daddy issues.

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Dude's got more issues than National Geographic. And is about as useful as post-Fox National Geographic.

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

Remember when the Kennedy name was a mark of quality for politicians and not a surgeon general's warning? "Caution: May contain high levels of crazy."

And to think that phony "No Labels" organization actually supports this guy! How about we elect a politician that actually DOES stuff instead of spreading conspiracy theories and demonizing already disenfranchised groups of people? Denying a transgender person health care never put food on my table, just sayin'.

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Someone's last name should never be an indicator of quality. I'd like my politics dynasty-free, thank you.

[-] KickMeElmo@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 year ago

I mean... no shit? Dude's completely nuts.

[-] zombuey@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

this fuckwit is running for president yo.

[-] Ziel@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

What a shocking revelation, a guy who is drenched in conspiracy theories is also an anti-semite. This guy is the ID of America.

[-] MasterObee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

He said because of some genetic differences that covid didn't affect some ethnicities as hard.

That's just fact. He didn't say it was created to do so, he said it's just the way the virus is.

[-] Mostly_Harmless@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

"is targeted to..." implies deliberate action, which is exactly the message he wanted to convey. It's just SSDD for this nutjob.

[-] MasterObee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No it doesn't.

See you just made up an entire conspiracy theory and saying RFK Jr. believes in it.

He did not say what you said he did. He said that it affects jews and asians different than black people. That's factual.

Stop making up reasons to hate people you disagree with. Listen to them and argue against what they say, not the words you put in their mouth.

Sickle cell targets african americans. Am I now saying there's a whole conspiracy against the black population by deliberately infecting them with sickle cell?

[-] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

Did you even read the article. None of it is factual, even the author of one of the articles he referenced said he was wrong.

No idea why you're supporting this man.

People really need to be more educated to read between the lines instead of taking everything at face value.

This was clearly a racist and antisemitic comment. Even it being factual would not change that.

[-] MasterObee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race

There are vast differences on how different ethnicities were able to combat the virus.

That's a fact.

No idea why you’re supporting this man.

Because I've listened to what he says and his interactions with people, instead of basing my impressions on him on headlines.

People really need to be more educated to read between the lines instead of taking everything at face value.

Agreed, and they'd see this article and made up controversy is just big media calling the shots. Listen to the candidates interviews and interactions, and I promise you'll understand every candidate better than just the media conglomerates narratives.

This was clearly a racist and antisemitic comment

Saying that some ethnicities handled the virus better/worse is not racist, nor antisemitic.

Sickle cell affects african americans more than other ethnicities. Is that racist to say?

[-] Mostly_Harmless@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Sickle cell does not "target" blacks, it is genetically inherited trait. It affects blacks more often as it is thought to have evolved in sub-Saharan Africans as protection from malaria. https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/index.html. So your statement isn't really a conspiracy, it's just uninformed.

RFK Jr is on video talking about bioweapons and in that context said that "There’s an argument that it is ethnically targeted..." https://nypost.com/2023/07/15/rfk-jr-says-covid-was-ethnically-targeted-to-spare-jews. People of color are affected by most diseases more that white people. This is not a new phenomenon and is related to racial disparities. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8513546/. Also, the Chinese were hit as hard as everyone else.

RFK Jr has a history of promoting conspiracy theories. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/06/06/rfk-jr-makes-unfounded-claims-about-mass-shootings-covid-19-here-are-all-the-conspiracies-he-promotes/?sh=20e82d7e3acc

I'm not making up any reasons to dislike RFK Jr. I dislike him based on his own words and actions.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

covid didn’t affect some ethnicities as hard.

That’s just fact.

It was blood types and not race, right? Blood type predicted severity of symptoms ... or was it infection rate?

Hmm. I guess it's also blood type: Not a big sample size, though.

Not my graph, but his comment reminded me of it so I went and found it on Reddit to share.

[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

No source?

The big error bars on everything but Christian raises an eyebrow.

[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I would be amazed if they weren't hit harder, many orthodox jews live in dense communities and there is a genetic disposition to immunodeficiency disorders.

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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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