Three members of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s family have slammed his views on vaccines, calling them ‘tragically wrong’.
Kennedy Jr, the son of late Attorney General Robert F Kennedy and nephew of late President John F Kennedy, is a prominent anti-vaccine activist and has advocated that parents should choose whether or not they want their children immunized.
His siblings, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Joseph P Kennedy II, and his niece, Maeve Kennedy McKean, authored an op-ed in Politico Magazine on Wednesday citing the rise of measles in the US.
‘Robert F Kennedy Jr – Joe and Kathleen’s brother and Maeve’s uncle – is part of this campaign to attack the institutions committed to reducing the tragedy of preventable infectious diseases,’ they wrote.
‘He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.’
Three members of prominent anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s family attacked his views on vaccines in an op-ed in Politico Magazine and called them ‘tragically wrong’. Pictured: Kennedy Jr in Beverly Hills, California, in March 2019
His siblings, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (left) and Joseph P Kennedy II, and his niece, Maeve Kennedy McKean (right), accused him of spreading misinformation about vaccines and warned that it could have ‘heartbreaking – and deadly -consequences’
In the op-ed, Kennedy’s family members praised his work of cleaning and fighting against water pollution.
But they called his views on vaccines ‘wrong’ and said that his spreading of misinformation was could have ‘heartbreaking – and deadly – consequences’.
On Monday, federal health officials revealed that a total of 764 people in 23 states have been sickened by the measles, the highest number since the virus was deemed ‘eliminated’ in 2000.
In New York City alone, the caseload is 466 since the outbreak began in October 2018, mostly among Orthodox Jewish communities.
‘These tragic numbers are caused by the growing fear and mistrust of vaccines – amplified by internet doomsayers,’ the three authors wrote.
Kennedy Jr’s relatives also accused him of helping ‘to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.’
The environmentalist had railed against vaccine manufacturers for their use of thiomersal, a mercury compound in certain vaccines, claiming it’s ‘poisoning’ children.
Thiomersal, however, is no longer used in US vaccines – except some versions of the flu shot – and hasn’t been proven to cause autism.
Kennedy Jr also said he wants to make sure ‘vaccines are subject to the same kind of safety scrutiny and safety testing that other drugs are subject to’ according to an August 2017 interview with STAT News.
But vaccines are under greater scrutiny and undergo more safety testing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than drugs do.
The three family members cited the measles outbreak in the US, which has so far sickened 764 people in 23 states. Pictured: Joseph P Kennedy II, August 2009
Kennedy Jr told reporters in January 2017 that he had been asked by President Donald Trump to chair a commission to review vaccine safety. It seems the administration has since abandoned such plans. Pictured: Kennedy Jr, right, with Cheryl Hines, February 2019
The attorney has also tied the rise of chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes to vaccines as well as pesticides.
Kennedy Townsend, Kennedy II and Kennedy McKean called their sibling and uncle ‘an outlier in the Kennedy family’, saying that John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, and their brother, Ted Kennedy, were all supporters of vaccines.
In January 2017, President Donald Trump met with Kennedy Jr, who told reporters at the time that he had been asked to chair a commission to review vaccine safety.
But in February 2018, Kennedy told The Guardian he hadn’t heard from the White House in six months and there had been ‘zero progress’ – implying the administration has abandoned its plans for the committee.
‘[W]e are proud of the history of our family as advocates of public health and promoters of immunization campaigns to bring life-saving vaccines to the poorest and most remote corners of America and the world, where children are the least likely to receive their full course of vaccinations,’ the three authors wrote.
Kennedy Townsend is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Kennedy II is a former congressman from Massachusetts and Kennedy McKean is the executive director of Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiatives.