<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/05/rfk-jr-hearing-black-people-immune-systems>
"During Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate confirmation hearing on 30 January, Angela
Alsobrooks, a Democratic senator from Maryland, pressed the nominee on his past
claims that Black people have a stronger immune system than white people and
thereby, should receive vaccines on a different schedule than them. “What
different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received?” Alsobrooks,
who is Black, asked the health secretary nominee. Kennedy then referenced a
“series of studies” showing that “to particular antigens, Blacks have a much
stronger reaction”.
The exchange is cause for alarm for many, as it signified how close a man who
holds medically racist beliefs was to becoming the country’s leading health
official. Dr Richard Kennedy – an author of the study referenced at the
hearing, who is not related to Kennedy – told NPR that while it’s true the
immune response to vaccination can vary by race, sex and “potentially dozens of
other factors”, the data does not support a change in vaccine schedule based on
race.
Alsobrooks went on to characterize the nominee’s incorrect interpretation of
medical research as “dangerous”, noting the potential for the misinformation to
have far-reaching and tangible effects on people’s lives. Shannon Cavanagh, the
department chair of sociology at University of Texas, Austin, agreed with this
sentiment, telling the Guardian that ideas like Kennedy’s could be used to
rationalize the lack of care for an under-served population. She noted that
even though false claims that Black people possess a stronger immune system or
higher pain tolerance persist, the demographic actually suffers from higher
maternal mortality rates and lower life expectancy than other groups.
“That’s the problem,” she said. “These claims are made to seem positive, but
they calcify the reality that there is disparate access to healthcare and that
has real implications for health and wellbeing.”
Since his nomination, Kennedy has faced significant criticism from several
members of the scientific community for making various false claims about
vaccines. In this case: “He made an assumption that is so far removed from even
what the paper itself would be possibly indicating and presented it as a valid
national policy”, Dr Devlin Cole, a preventive medicine physician in Madison,
Wisconsin, said of the claims made at the hearing. As a practicing physician,
Cole said she fears rhetoric like Kennedy’s could lead to negative health
outcomes for an already underserved demographic: “It instills distrust in
communities that have already had reason to distrust the system.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
