From Covid-19 conspiracy theories to confusion about the facts about Medicare and Medicaid to refusal to say that the vaccines are not associated with autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , who is a person who is hoping to lead the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
While his history of anti-vaxine remarks was a major conversation about speaking during the hearing, his beliefs were also in front and center during a heated exchange in which Senator Angela Elsobux (D-Md.) Readed a comment once made for vaccinations and the black community.
In 2021, Kennedy had said: “We should not give blacks the same schedule of the vaccine given to the whites because their immune system is better than ours.”
Alsobrooks asked Kennedy to explain what he meant by this remark, and he continued to refer to a “series of research”, while saying that research shows that “blacks needed less antigens.” (For the protocol, experts say this is not true.)
“At the moment, how the schedules of vaccines are adapted, are based on things like your age, the risk of exposure, if you have other chronic basic health conditions – but race is not one of them and there are no studies that suggest you should be,” said Joel Bervel, a recent medical graduate and medical myth on social media, in front of Huffpost.
What was particularly worried about Bervel about the Kennedy exchange with Alsobooks was the fact that he doubled in his comment from 2021.
Kennedy could use this as an opportunity to admit that he needed to do more research and understand the vaccine schedule: “But instead, he defended what I said, which I think is where the problem is hiding,” Bervel told Huffpost. “Not necessarily the fact of misinformation is there, but the fact that he is not ready to at least stand up to him or admit that on stage.”
Below experts like Bervel, they share their concerns about Kennedy’s statement and how it reflects a bigger problematic picture:
Kennedy’s comment can be considered “scientific racism,” experts say.
“In medicine, in science, we know that race is a social construction, which means that you cannot look at someone’s genes and identify what race they are,” Bervel said.
This means that the differences in vaccine deadlines simply do not have a scientific meaning.
“The comment [Kennedy] Designed for vaccine graphics, the main scientific racism has been debunked, “said Dr. Blackstock, a doctor and HIV doctor, who is the founder and CEO of Health Justice, in front of Huffpost.
“He really perpetuates this false conviction that blacks are somehow biologically different from white people and thus justify the differential and ultimately uneven treatment for black people against white people,” Blackstock added.
“When he said this, he was released by one of the larger stages in healthcare, this notion that medicine based on a race still should still exist when it is actually what many scientists have recently been trying to eradicate,” Bervel said.
Medicine based on race and scientific racism have led to insufficient treatment of black patients, dismissal of pain and even death, Blackstock emphasized.
Both experts have indicated examples of this, such as the false conviction that black people have better functioning kidneys than white people. This makes it difficult for blacks to receive the necessary treatment, such as kidney transplants, according to Bervel. And this thought model is not from some distant time – a medical equation that has reinforced this bias, has not changed until 2021, Bervel said.
Moreover, during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, black people were thought to be resistant to yellow fever, which is not true and led to high mortality among black people, Blackstock explained.
“The importance of understanding the problem with myths is that they can literally lead to recording in medicine that treat populations differently solely on the basis of race,” Bervel said. “This can actually change the care people get.”
Although it is easy to consider a particular point of view as a one -off, medical racism has consequences of the real world that irresponsible comments can get worse. The promotion of debuts, “distracts us to really do the work we need to do, which is the dismantling of systemic racism in healthcare and ensures that everyone has fair access to the preventive care and treatments they need,” Blackstock added.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Black Community, the commentary of the cabinet is worried about medical experts. Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images
Such positions can lead to more distrust in the healthcare system.
“One thing that is also something strange to him [Kennedy] Whether he is a person who has long said he does not support vaccines, “Bervel said. “Obviously, he changed his mind now, but for a long time he said he did not support vaccines, and then he also said that black people should get a different schedule of the vaccine. So you have to wonder what the purpose is to say that if you don’t even believe in vaccines? “
Bervel said comments such as Kennedy can sow the vaccine fluctuation in black populations, which is dangerous and can erode confidence in evidence -based medicine.
This is not the first time it happened, Blackstock added. In 2021, Kennedy produced a documentary called “Medical Racism: The New Apartheid”, which Blackstock said it promoted misinformation for health and vaccines to the black community, along with other marginalized groups.
“It is interesting how some of his efforts were focused on taking advantage [and] The use of distrust that some of the black community has around vaccines and the health system due to structural racism and medical racism, “Blackstock said.
With misinformation and fear tactics that grow in social media, the misinformation by government leaders will only make it difficult to say what is real and what is false in medicine. Trust must be paramount to healthcare as an institution, Bervel said.
“Trust is already eroded in healthcare,” Bervel explained. “We need to have someone who will work with scientists, researchers, doctors who are on the ground, seeing these problems every day, not someone who is in the ivory tower that looks at the top without understanding what really happens on the ground. “
Experts say this rhetoric is aligned with the messages from Donald Trump.
Blackstock stressed that although such false beliefs are very problematic, they track a large part of Donald Trump’s messages and his new presidential administration.
“This sounds part of the rhetoric that [Trump] has shared around Eugene and immigrants, “Blackstock said. “He talks about immigrants who have” bad genes “or” poisoning the blood of our country. ” He just talks about this idea of racial purity or genetic purity, and this false idea that certain groups of people are inherently more or more prone to certain behaviors because of their genetics. “
Again, the race is a social construction and does not equate to genetic differences. “It’s just really shocking that in 2025 we are still dealing with those beliefs that have been distributed for several centuries that have been used to justify slavery used to justify uneven treatment used to justify Forced sterilization, “Blackstock said.
Blackstock added that he believes that people are diverging this type of rhetoric because people get used to other people’s comments and bad behavior.
“But we really need to know this and say that this is really dangerous and really about rhetoric, which can have real health effects,” Blackstock said.
Related …