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The Washington Post: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests covid was designed to spare Jews, Chinese people
By Ruby Cramer/The Washington Post
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advanced a dangerous conspiracy theory this week that the coronavirus could have been a bioweapon “deliberately targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people while disproportionately attacking White and Black people, according to a video of the remarks published Saturday by the New York Post.
“There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said during a dinner on New York’s Upper East Side on Tuesday evening. “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
His remarks at the gathering — a dinner party attended by members of the media and Kennedy’s campaign manager at Tony’s Di Napoli on East 63rd Street — amplify racist and antisemitic tropes, including theories that blame Jews for the spread of the coronavirus to expand influence and financial gain, according to research by the Anti-Defamation League.
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Jane Shim, the director of the Stop Asian Hate Project, an initiative of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, described Kennedy’s remarks as “irresponsible, hateful comments,” likening his words to the “dangerous rhetoric” of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly referred to covid-19 as “the China virus” and previously called it the “kung flu.”
“Antisemitism and anti-Chinese, anti-Asian sentiment are as old as the country itself. Even today, it’s an easy way to score points with the same nativist ideologues who manufacture conspiracy theories like the one [Kennedy] is now promoting,” Shim told The Post on Saturday.
“While RFK spitballs his baseless claims, leaning into them when beneficial and distancing himself when harmful to his campaign, Asian Americans will be harmed,” Shim added.
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For more than three years, scientists and lawmakers from both parties have debated the origins of the virus. Many virologists and evolutionary biologists believe the virus probably spread to humans from a Wuhan, China, market where wild animals were sold and butchered. Others have argued that the virus could have accidentally made it out of a lab where researchers were studying coronaviruses. In May 2021, Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to examine the virus’s origins. The agencies did not reach a consensus, though most have stated that the natural origins scenario is more likely. Intelligence agencies do agree, however, that the virus was not developed as a bioweapon.
Kennedy, the son of the late senator Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, has gained attention by spreading conspiracy theories about the pandemic, Anthony S. Fauci and the AIDS epidemic. He has compared mask mandates and vaccination efforts to the Holocaust.
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Twelve weeks into his campaign to unseat President Biden in the Democratic primary, some polls show him with as much as 20 percent of support among primary voters.
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Read the article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/15/robert-kennedy-jr-covid-conspiracy/