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Kennedy heir who opposes vaccines eyes presidential run challenging Biden

Son and namesake of slain New York senator Robert F. Kennedy has been one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement and has downplayed the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Reuters

Despite coming from the prominent Kennedy family, the 69-year-old’s campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot.

Prominent Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the country’s most famous political families, is running for president.

Kennedy filed a statement of candidacy on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The 69-year-old’s campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot.

Self-help author Marianne Williamson is also running in the Democratic race.

Kennedy, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of his slain brother and New York senator, Robert F. Kennedy, was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water.

But more than 15 years ago, he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe.

He emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, and his work has been described by public health experts and even members of his own family as misleading and dangerous.

Kennedy had been long involved in the anti-vaccine movement, but the effort intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, prospered during the pandemic, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

His organisation has targeted false claims at groups that may be more prone to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans, experts have said, which could have resulted in deaths during the pandemic.

Kennedy released a book in 2021, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” in which he accused the US’s top infectious disease doctor of assisting in “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy” and promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

His push against the COVID-19 vaccine has linked him at times with anti-democratic figures and groups.

Kennedy has also appeared at events pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Kennedy has repeatedly invoked Nazis and the Holocaust when talking about measures aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19, such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates.