Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed without evidence that COVID-19 was a genetically-engineered weapon created to attack Caucasians and Black people and spare the lives of Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
He made the baseless claim on Tuesday in New York City at the same dinner event held at Tony's Di Napoli on the Upper East Side that was interrupted by the ridiculous farting fiasco.
RFK Jr.–son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of Democratic President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy–was a known anti-vaxxer long before the pandemic started.
Since 2020, he has repeatedly pushed false misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19.
During the question and answer portion of the event, RFK Jr. told attendees, per the New York Post:
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately."
“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people."
RFK Jr. continued:
"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."
You can hear him make his baseless claims in the clip below.
RFK Jr. went on to suggest more advanced biological weapons were being developed that would have a "50% infection fatality rate” that would make COVID “look like a walk in the park.”
He added:
“We do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons and we are developing ethnic bioweapons."
“They’re collecting Russian DNA. They’re collecting Chinese DNA so we can target people by race.”
People online scoffed at RFK Jr.'s unsupported remarks.
RFK Jr. did not mention anything to back his claim.
His latest conspiracy theory was similar to antisemitic literature spreading online that blamed Jewish people for the pandemic, according to the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at the University of Tel Aviv’s 2021 Antisemitism Worldwide Report.
The anti-vaccine propagandist received backlash for suggesting the virus was designed to spare certain ethnic groups.
Morton Klein, President of the right-leaning Zionist Organization of America, said:
"This is crazy."
"It makes no sense that they would do that. I read everything. I was totally against the vaccine. . . I wanted to convince myself it was correct not to take it. I have never seen anything like this.”
The Anti-Defamation League wrote a statement in response to RFK Jr.'s conspiracy theory.
The statement obtained by The New York Post read:
"The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and anti-semitic conspiracy theories about COVID-19 that we have seen evolve over the last three years."
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