"Journalists are grappling with how to cover Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in his run for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 presidential race. Kennedy is currently polling 15% against Joe Biden among Democrats. He is also known for his fringe beliefs. In a recent interview on Joe Rogan's podcast, Kennedy claimed that vaccines alter genes, young people are more at risk from COVID vaccines than from COVID, and WiFi radiation from cellphones causes cancer. Kennedy is not the first presidential candidate to spout misinformation on the campaign trail. But his blend of anti-vaccine messaging, critiques of mainstream media, anti-trans stances, support of bitcoin, and environmentalist bona fides has made him attractive to a unique coalition of voters that journalist Anna Merlan describes as 'anti-vax activists, crypto enthusiasts, silicon valley moguls and supporters from across the horseshoe of extremism'."
He has falsely linked vaccines to various medical conditions.
"Mr. Kennedy has promoted many false, specious or unproven claims that center on public health and the pharmaceutical industry — most notably, the scientifically discredited belief that childhood vaccines cause autism."
This is a particularly egregious one, when he appeared with a noted transphobe -
He has made baseless claims about a connection between gender dysphoria and chemical exposure.
"In an interview last month with Jordan Peterson, a conservative Canadian psychologist and public speaker, Mr. Kennedy falsely linked chemicals present in water sources to transgender identity."
Nothing like promoting a falsehood that helps the gun nuts.
He has falsely linked antidepressants to school shootings.
"Drawing on longstanding dubious claims, Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly endorsed the idea that mass shootings have increased because of heightened use of antidepressants."
"The experience of interviewing him and listening to his previous interviews, I found, was like settling in for a long train ride with a seemingly amiable stranger in the next seat. You ask a straightforward question and, an hour later, as you race by Thirtieth Street Station, in Philadelphia, he is still going on about the fraud of covid vaccines and how he was unfairly 'deplatformed' for spouting conspiracy theories."
"The experience of interviewing him and listening to his previous interviews, I found, was like settling in for a long train ride with a seemingly amiable stranger in the next seat. You ask a straightforward question and, an hour later, as you race by Thirtieth Street Station, in Philadelphia, he is still going on about the fraud of covid vaccines and how he was unfairly 'deplatformed' for spouting conspiracy theories."
How can anyone who claims to be a genuine environmentalist vote for this guy? RFK Jr. claims to recognize the effects of climate change, but says that he opposes government efforts, which he analogizes to Covid lockdowns (which he also opposed, along with the vaccine).
Climate change is being used to control us through fear. Freedom and free markets are a much better way to stop pollution. Polluters make themselves rich by making the public pay for the damage they do. You show me a polluter, I’ll show you a fat cat using political clout to… pic.twitter.com/CmRywROxbf
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 13, 2023
RFK Jr. said, “There is an argument that [COVID-19] is ethnically targeted,” adding that the coronavirus “attacks certain races disproportionately.” Getting more specific, the anti-vaccine activist insisted, “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dished out wild COVID-19 conspiracy theories this week during a press event at an Upper East Side restaurant, claiming the bug was a genetically engineered bioweapon that may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” Kennedy hedged.
The @nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 15, 2023
The @nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews. In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered. That study is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32664879/10:46 AM · Jul 15, 2023·2.2M Views
I’m not sure Nutter Kennedy’s denials carry much weight. If he were to tell me the sky was blue without a cloud in the sky, I would definitely pack an umbrella.
ACE2 polymorphism analysis across different populations
Here, we investigated genetic susceptibility to COVID-19 by examining DNA polymorphisms in ACE2 (OMIM 300335) and TMPRSS2 (OMIM 602060) genes. We assembled a total of 437 non-synonymous single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the protein-coding regions of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 (Fig. 1a) from three databases: (i) Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD v3: gnomad.broadinstitute.org, covering 9 geographical areas), (ii) Exome Sequencing Project (ESP: evs.gs.washington.edu/EVS/), and (iii) 1000 Genomes Project (1KGP, www.internationalgenome.org). We used ANNOVAR [9] to annotate all non-synonymous variants. By applying Polyphen2 and CADD (Combined Annotation Dependent Depletion) scores, we identified 63 potentially deleterious variants in ACE2 (61 in gnomAD) and 68 deleterious variants in TMPRSS2 (63 in gnomAD).
We found that the distribution of deleterious variants in ACE2 differs among 9 populations in gnomAD (v3). Specifically, 39% (24/61) and 54% (33/61) of deleterious variants in ACE2 occur in African/African-American (AFR) and Non-Finnish European (EUR) populations, respectively (Fig. 1b). Prevalence of deleterious variants among Latino/Admixed American (AMR), East Asian (EAS), Finnish (FIN), and South Asian (SAS) populations is 2–10%, while Amish (AMI) and Ashkenazi Jewish (ASJ) populations do not appear to carry such variants in ACE2 coding regions (Fig. 1b). Specifically, several variants, including p.Met383Thr, p.Pro389His, and p.Asp427Tyr, have been reported to slightly inhibit the interaction between ACE2 and the spike protein of SARS-CoV-1 [10], which caused the first global SARS-CoV-1 outbreak. Only AFR populations carry p.Met383Thr and p.Asp427Tyr variants, with allele frequencies of 0.003% and 0.01%, respectively (Fig. 1b). The p.Pro389His only occurs in the AMR populations, with an allele frequency of 0.015%. The p.Arg514Gly is a low allele frequency (0.003%) variant in AFR populations and is also somatically mutated in colon cancers and melanomas from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA: https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov). This ACE2 variant is located in the angiotensinogen (AGT)-ACE2 interaction surface, which is anticipated to influence the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) function. The RAS is critical for regulation of blood pressure, sodium, and fluid balance, and its dysfunction is associated with cardiovascular and kidney disorders [11]. Residues Arg708/710/716 are located in the dimeric interface of ACE2 (Fig. 2a), and they are essential for its cleavage by TMPRSS2; this processing is required for augmentation of SARS-S-driven entry into host cells [12]. The EUR population carries the p.Arg708Trp, p.Arg710Cys, p. Arg710His, and p.Arg716Cys variants with allele frequency of 0.01~0.006% (Fig. 1a), while the EAS and the AMR populations only carry p.Arg708Trp and p.Arg710His with allele frequency of 0.04% and 0.01% respectively. In addition to these four variants, p.Leu731Phe has the highest allele frequency in the AFR and EUR populations. We further inspected the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) for ACE2 using the GTEx [13] and QTLbase [14] databases. We did not find any eQTLs for ACE2 from the GTEx, while we found one weak eQTL associated with ACE2 non-synonymous SNP (rs41303171) in the kidney from the QTLbase [14].
The @nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews. In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered. That study is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32664879/10:46 AM · Jul 15, 2023·2.2M Views
What a load of sh*t. You can listen to him, or pay attention to the reality that neither Jewish nor Chinese people were any "safer" than anyone else. And his mealy-mouthed "what I really said" doesn't match what he really said.
The study isn’t the issue here, it’s what Nutter said about the study. The kind of racist conspiracy garbage he is accused of having espoused in private is entirely in keeping with the kind of conspiracy nonsense he repeats in public all the time.
Thus, even if someone were able to design a virus around those human ACE2 variants, it would have no ethnic-specific impact, as only a minuscule fraction of people in any ethnic groups may be differentially at risk to the rest of humanity. 5/
— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) July 15, 2023
How can anyone who claims to be a genuine environmentalist vote for this guy? RFK Jr. claims to recognize the effects of climate change, but says that he opposes government efforts, which he analogizes to Covid lockdowns (which he also opposed, along with the vaccine).
I think RFK Jr is wrong to allege "fear-mongering" over climate change. But he's right when he says that climate change will be overcome market forces -- clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels, especially when the real costs of fossil fuel combustion, like the destruction of the environment, are included.
However, to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuels, we need government involvement and international cooperation to assist and incentivize the private companies whose products will electrify our economy and end emissons of greenhouse gases. The Green New Deal was a step in that direction, and RFK Jr needs to get on board.
He's on record opposing fracking and oil and gas pipelines, so he's a lot further on toward government intervention and the Green New Deal than most Democrats who purport to be concerned about climate change.
The market triumph of #renewables marks the biggest victory yet in fight against #climatechange. #Solar + wind are proliferating not because of moral do-gooders but because they’re now the most profitable part of the power business in most of the world.https://t.co/CKVn63ij50
He's on record opposing fracking and oil and gas pipelines, so he's a lot further on toward government intervention and the Green New Deal than most Democrats who purport to be concerned about climate change.
The "evidence" you cite does not support the statement "he's a lot further on toward government intervention and the Green New Deal than most Democrats", especially in light of the tweet that you chose to post.
Come for the anti-vax rhetoric, stay for the Scott Ritter revival.