It was one of the more overtaken exchanges in an already heated hearing for confirmation, as the senators set the Robert F Kennedy -Jr.’s record on vaccines – and its shifting positions on their safety and efficacy – under the microscope.
Senator Angela Alsobowks, a Democrat from Maryland, pointed out past comments made by Kennedy, in which he said: “We should not give blacks the same graphics of the vaccine given to the whites because their immune system is better than ours.” S
“So, what different schedule of vaccines would you say I had to get?” asked Alsobrooks, who is black. “With all respect, this is so dangerous.”
In response, Kennedy cites a well-known vaccine researcher and said there was a “series of studies” showing that “for specific antigens, blacks have a much stronger reaction.”
The basis for Kennedy’s comment seems to be working by a team from the Mayo clinic, who examined the differences in the immune response to the race vaccination. The data show that Afro -Americans have installed a higher response to antibodies after vaccination against MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) compared to white people.
The study’s own author, however, tells the NPR that the data does not support a change in the Race -based vaccine schedule.
Dr. Richard Kennedy, a vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic, who is not associated with Robert u Kennedy – Jr. – says the immune response of vaccination can vary depending on race, sex and “potential dozens of other factors”.
But the assumption that Afro -American must have different schedules will be “twisting the data far beyond what they are actually demonstrated,” he says.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine at Emori University, agrees, saying that such a conclusion is to “take him to a very dangerous place”, partly because the percentage of vaccination is already a lower nail among black children.
Despite his history of undermine confidence in the safety of vaccines, Kennedy spent hearing confirmation, arguing that he was supporting them. But he has stopped giving up his actual past statements, including debut allegations that vaccines cause autism.
A review of Kennedy’s full comments during this 2021 appearance, from which ALSOBROOKS cites, shows that Kennedy makes additional false statements about the safety of vaccines.
It begins with the quote of statistics from a study reporting that it finds a much higher percentage of autism in black children who have received the MMR vaccine on schedule. However, this document was withdrawn due to undeclared competitive interests by the author and is worried about the validity of methods and statistical analysis. The author is the Chief Scientific Officer of Children’s Health Protection, and the Kennedy Vaccine Advocacy Group has founded and managed for many years.
Kennedy then seems to refer to the Mayo clinic study, saying that it shows that the measles vaccine will “press their immune response over the rock” and “the body of these black guys will start attacking their own body, thinking that This is a foreign invader. ”
He adds: “The vaccines we give them overload them and cause autoimmune.”
None of this is supported by the actual study that does not consider adverse events or side effects.
“The data does not indicate that a racial group is experiencing increased harm or autoimmune compared to any other racial group,” says study author Richard Kennedy.
RFK Jr. is involved in other efforts to question the safety of vaccines based on race.
A film, which was produced by Kennedy a few years ago, has explicitly raised the idea that vaccines can be disproportionate damage to colorful people – and mistakenly presents another study by the Mayo clinic, that of the Rubella vaccine, to enhance its argument.
The author of this study, Dr. Gregory Poland, told the NPR that they did not find “no evidence of increased side effects of the vaccine” and that any claim for “increased vulnerability” among African Americans receiving the rubella vaccine, “just It is not supported by this study, nor by this study, nor by this study, nor by this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from the study, nor from this study, nor from the study, nor from this study This study, neither from this study, neither from this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from this study, nor from the study, nor from This study, neither from this study, nor from this study science. ”
This story was edited by Jane Greinhalg
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