Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vax battle with Sen. Richard Pan goes viral in a bad way
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is one of the greatest might-have-beens in American politics.
With piercing blue eyes that are shockingly like his father’s, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is verbally facile, smart and has a brand name that was once as powerful as IBM or General Motors.
Today, not so much. State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, is calling for Kennedy Jr. to be banned from social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. He has already been banned from Instagram for spreading misinformation.
“Pan told supporters of his Ready to Vaccinate campaign in a Wednesday email that Kennedy should be stripped of his accounts for using them to ‘spread lies about COVID-19 vaccines and trying to drive fear in communities of color,’” wrote Hannah Wiley of The Sacramento Bee.
“Sadly, COVID-19 isn’t the only disease we’re fighting,” Pan wrote in the email inviting subscribers to sign a petition for Kennedy’s social media removal. “We’re also up against the disease of misinformation, perpetuated by high-profile anti-vaxxers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
In the midst of a global pandemic and against all science and reason, Kennedy has urged people to avoid taking any of the vaccines now currently available. In fact, Newsweek reported that the “environmental lawyer turned controversial vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubts the safety and efficacy of Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines and said he would urge his 92-year-old mother Ethel not to take either one.”
Each of these vaccines has been shown in clinical trials to be over 90% effective in preventing the spread of the disease that has, thus far, killed 500,000 Americans and 2.55 million people worldwide.
As someone who has watched the Kennedy family for decades, I find it sad to see RFK Jr. become an aging anti-science crank. I remember when he was a 14-year-old kid mourning his father and, later, watched him become a passionate advocate for the environment. I used to admire him.
Members of the Kennedy family have played prominent roles in American politics for centuries. They have served in the roles of president, attorney general, senator, congressman, ambassador and mayor. Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, was the head of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee, which resuscitated the career of President Joe Biden.
RFK Jr.’s nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, recently lost an ill-advised 2020 primary challenge to Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. He’s the first Kennedy to lose an election. He may be back, but who knows? The Kennedy brand is not what it once was.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a big reason why.
I met Kennedy once and spent a little time with him. I suggested to Portland State University’s Alumni Board that they bring him in as a speaker in 2001. He was incredibly impressive.
Prior to that, I saw RFK Jr. eviscerate former Vice President Dan Quayle in a Portland debate about the environment. I actually felt sorry for Quayle, who was completely outmatched.
Like millions of Americans, I deeply admired President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert. I have a few memories of his assassination in 1963. Later, as a seven-year-old, I attended RFK’s burial at Arlington Cemetery on June 8, 1968. I stood right next to Sen. Kennedy’s hearse as it drove past. Flashbulbs illuminated the red, white and blue flag-draped coffin.
That image will always haunt me. What haunts me now is how his namesake son has diminished such a poignant legacy.
Even members of his own family have spoken out against RFK Jr.
“We love Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he is part of a misinformation campaign that’s having heartbreaking — and deadly —consequences,” wrote Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Maeve Kennedy McKean in a Politico opinion piece titled “RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.”
State Sen. Pan is a respected doctor. Kennedy is a lawyer with a famous name who is utterly unqualified to provide medical advice. The fact that Instagram banned him for sharing “repeatedly debunked claims” about vaccines shows how far off the rails he’s gone with his anti-vaccine crusade.
With his fact-free disinformation campaign, Kennedy Jr. removed himself from any meaningful participation in this debate.
His father once observed that the “purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
RFK Jr. might want to ask himself if that’s what’s he doing with his anti-vaccination drivel.
