PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — For years Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got lots of attention just because of his name. Now he’s getting even more as a candidate for president — and drawing criticism at the same time.
An email video message circulating this week from the non-profit Children’s Health Defense is entitled “Vaccines Can and Do Kill Children.” Kennedy is chair of the organization.
The video is purposely shocking.
“Vaccines can and do kill babies,” the narrator says, referring to the 2005 case of Alexander Locke Johnson, born premature in February of that year. She then quotes the mother’s account of what happened.
“My son suffered a seizure and cardiac arrest on April the 29th, 2005, three and a half days after receiving his first set of vaccines.” The child died about two weeks later, and the family was awarded $250,000 in court.
10 On Your Side reached out to Kennedy’s campaign to clarify his position on vaccines and representatives did not immediately respond. But Kennedy and CHF have both been criticized for their vaccine messaging.
In August 2022, Facebook and Instagram kicked Children’s Health Defense off of their platforms for repeatedly breaching their policies, and members of RFK’s own family have criticized him and distanced themselves. They told Politico in 2019 that Kennedy was “tragically wrong about vaccines.”
More recently, his nephew Jack Schlossberg – the grandson of President John F. Kennedy — said on social media, “I have no idea why anyone thinks RFK should be president.”
The Virginia Department of Health, which was front and center with its vaccination clinics during COVID, declined our invitation for an interview, but did say in a statement, “VDH’s position that vaccines are safe, effective and life-saving — is well documented.”
The most recent national data shows 93% of kindergarten students have had their routine vaccinations, the lowest percentage in the past decade.