Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Criticized For Saying COVID-19 Was ‘Ethnically Targeted’ To Spare Chinese And Jewish People

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced condemnation over the weekend after a video emerged that showed him saying that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” towards “Caucasians and Black people” while not harming “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” communities. He later added that there were “papers” that demonstrate the difference.

This prompted many civil rights groups to accuse the presidential candidate of antisemitism and racism.

Many Democrats also spoke against Kennedy. Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said, “These are deeply troubling comments, and I want to make clear that they do not represent the views of the Democratic Party.”

The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that combats antisemitism and bias, also denounced Kennedy. A spokesperson wrote that the remarks were “deeply offensive” and fed into “Sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

On Sunday, Kennedy released a video responding to the backlash, stating that he didn’t believe the virus was “deliberately engineered” but considered it a “proof of concept that you can develop bioweapons that will attack certain ethnicities.”

He also tweeted a link to a scientific study that, he asserted, provided evidence that the specific makeup of the virus caused the difference in susceptibility among certain ethnicities. Many scientists and health officials pushed back, citing that the research was only conducted to find risk factors for severe symptoms. They also stated that the virus disproportionately killed some communities not due to race but inequities in health care.

Over the past decade, Kennedy has become a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine movement by spreading conspiracy theories that have received criticism from public health experts.

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In a 2022 speech, he compared public instructions from health organizations regarding COVID-19 to “fascism,” saying, “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”

Kennedy announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in April. He has received significant support from the right with FEC records showing that of the 104 donors that gave more than $6,000 to his campaign, over 40% had previously donated to Republicans.