Small RFK's astonishing claims about black people and vaccines have attracted attention from medical experts

From the conspiracy theories of Covid-19 to confusion about the facts of Medicare and Medicaid, to the refusal to say that vaccines have nothing to do with autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Although his history of anti-vaccine rhetoric was a major topic throughout the hearing, his beliefs were also the focus and center during the intense exchanges, Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md . ) made Kennedy’s comments on vaccination. and the black community.

“We shouldn't give black people a vaccine schedule that white people because their immune systems are better than ours,” Kennedy said in 2021.

Alsobrooks asked Kennedy to explain what he meant, and he went on to cite “a series of studies” while saying that “blacks need fewer antigens.” (According to records, experts say this is not true.)

“Currently, tailored vaccine schedules are based on your age, exposure risk, if you have other chronic underlying health conditions, but race is not one of them, and no research suggests it should be done. Be,” social media Joel Bervell, a recent medical graduate and medical mythology, told HuffPost.

Bervell is particularly bothering about the fact that Kennedy communicates with Alsobrooks, a double comment he has started in 2021.

Kennedy could have used it to admit that he needed to do more research and understand the vaccine schedule, “but, he defended what he said, I think that's where the problem lies,” Burrville told Huffpost. “It’s not necessarily the fact that there is misinformation, but that he is at least unwilling to face or admit the facts on the stage.”

Below, experts like Bervell share their concerns about Kennedy’s statement and how it reflects a larger problematic situation:

Experts say Kennedy’s comments can be regarded as “scientific racism.”

“In medicine, in science, we know that race is a social structure, which means you can’t look at someone’s genes and determine what race they are,” Belleville said.

This means that the difference in the vaccine schedule is just not scientifically meaningless.

“Comment [Kennedy] Dr. Oni Blackstock, founder and executive director of racial and health equity consulting firm Health Justice, told HuffPost.

Blackstock added: “He did perpetuate this false belief that blacks are biologically different from whites and proved in this way the difference is ultimately unequal to treatment of blacks and whites. of.”

“That way, he's in one of the larger stages in health care, the idea that race-based drugs still exist, and that's actually what many scientists are trying to take root recently,” Burrville said.

Black Stout stressed that race-based medicine and scientific racism leads to undertreatment, pain and even death in black patients.

Both experts point to real-life examples, such as false belief that blacks have better functioning kidneys than whites. According to Burrville, this makes it harder for blacks to get the treatment they need, such as kidney transplants. Belleville said this mindset did not start at a distant time – the prejudiced medical equation will not change until 2021, Belleville said.

More importantly, during the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia, it was believed that blacks were resistant to yellow fever, which was incorrect and led to high black death rates.

“The importance of understanding mythological issues is that they can literally lead to the writing of regulations into medicine that treat populations based solely on race,” Burrville said. “It can actually change the care people get.”

While it’s easy to see a specific point of view as a one-off point, medical racism has real consequences, and irresponsible comments can make worse comments worse. Blackstock added: “Promoting the debunked beliefs “distract the work we really need to do, which is to remove systemic racism in health care and ensure everyone has fair access to the preventive care and treatment they need.” method. ”

Such a position may lead to distrust in the healthcare system.

“One thing is strange to him, too [Kennedy] He is a long time people say he doesn't support vaccines. “Burville said. “Obviously, now he changed his mind, but for a long time he said he didn't support the vaccine, and then he also said black people should get a different vaccine schedule. So you have to doubt what your goal is if you don't even believe in the vaccine? ”

Like Kennedy’s comments, hesitation to seed vaccines among black people is dangerous and can erode trust in evidence-based medicine.

Blackstock added that this is not the first time this has happened. In 2021, Kennedy produced a documentary called “Medical Racism: New Racism,” which Blackstock said promotes misinformation on the health and vaccines of the Black community, among other marginalizations. group.

“It’s interesting how some of his efforts focus on utilizing [and] “Use some people in the black community to have structural racism and medical racism distrust in the vaccine and healthcare systems,” Blackstock said.

Due to rampant misinformation and panic strategies on social media, misinformation by government leaders only makes it difficult to tell what is real and what is fake medicine. As an institution, trusts must be crucial, Belleville said.

“The trust has been eroded in health care,” Burrville explained. “We need someone who is going to work with scientists, researchers, doctors who see these problems every day on the ground, rather than watching from above The people who looked at these problems in the ivory tower without knowing what was actually happening on the ground.”

Experts say this rhetoric coincides with news about Donald Trump.

Blackstock stressed that while this false belief is very problematic, they tracked through most of the news that Donald Trump and his new president manage.

“It responded to some comments [Trump] “It revolves around eugenics and immigration,” Blackstock said. “He's talking about immigration 'bad genes' or 'toxic blood that poisons our country'. It just talks about this notion of racial purity or genetic purity, and this The wrong idea is that some people are inherently inferior or prejudiced to certain behaviors because their genetics belong to certain behaviors.”

Similarly, race is a social structure and does not equal genetic differences. Blackstock said: “It's shocking that in 2025 we are still dealing with the spread of these beliefs that have been used for centuries to justify slavery and to prove it is for the sake of Prove unequal treatment to justify forced sterilization.”

Blackstock added that she believes individuals escape this remark because people are used to weird comments and bad behavior.

“But we need to really mark this and say it's really dangerous and very focused on rhetoric that could have a real health impact,” Blackstock said.

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