Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaccine activist and a scion of the illustrious U.S. political family, declared on Wednesday his long-shot attempt to contest against incumbent President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
Although Kennedy, at 69, faces a slim chance of triumph, his campaign might serve as a platform to promote his contentions that childhood immunizations pose health hazards – a theory discredited by several scientific reviews.
During a rally in Boston, Kennedy tactfully avoided any mention of vaccines or questioned their efficacy. Instead, he vowed to prioritize research on chronic diseases if elected as President, “This is crippling to the middle class of this country. We need to figure out what it is,” he said.
Kennedy’s audaciousness does not come without its impediments. He has been barred from YouTube and Instagram for disseminating misinformation about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The son of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his own presidential bid, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, invoked the names of his father and uncle. Still, he acknowledged that numerous members of the extended family do not endorse his presidential ambition.
However, Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advocacy has gained him allies on the right. In 2017, Republican then-President Donald Trump appointed him to oversee a vaccine review panel, which attracted criticism from scientists who asserted that it could legitimize unfounded skepticism.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy has disparaged social-distancing mandates and vaccine requirements. At a rally in Washington in January 2022, he insinuated that Americans endured fewer freedoms during the pandemic than Jews living in Nazi Germany, a statement for which he later apologized.
Self-help guru Marianne Williamson has also announced that she will challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination. In contrast, Biden, at 80, confirmed on Friday that he would seek re-election and would make a formal announcement “relatively soon.”
