Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is facing widespread criticism from political leaders and civil rights organizations after a video surfaced of him making false claims that COVID-19 was designed to attack certain ethnic groups while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people — a conspiracy theory that drew accusations of antisemitism and racism.

        • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          “COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,”

          Are you claiming that there are no differences between ethnicities and the harshness of covid?

          COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he continued, adding, “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.”

          What’s wrong with that? He said we don’t know the origins. That’s fact. He said we do know they affect different ethnicities differently, that’s fact.

          You’re trying to push a narrative against him for that.

          Come on, dude.

            • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              We don’t know the exact origins

              And many big organizations say there’s a reasonable chance that it was lab altered.

              we should assume given the likelihood it is and the lack of evidence otherwise that’s its perfectly natural

              We don’t know the origins, as you said before, but we should assume it was natural? I don’t assume either way, but it seems weird you claimed both these things.

              He is obviously throwing racist dog whistles

              No, he’s not. He said that we don’t know if it was created/altered by humans or not.

              But we do know it affects different ethnicities differently, which is, once again, objectively right.

              refusing to see that shows you are a racist

              Refusing to think like you makes me a racist? I think we have different definitions of racist.

                • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  4
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  The vast majority of diseases are natural so assuming its engineered without hard evidence is silly

                  The scientific community has been vocal that it’s reasonably likely it was altered in the coronavirus lab. You being anti-science is your problem, not RFK’s.

                  • RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Actually that’s incorrect. There’s no consensus with multiple agencies coming to different conclusions ranging from maybe it was to we have no idea.

                    No one has found any smoking gun. But what is more telling is the conspiratards that dog pile on this topic as if the question of its origin somehow validates all their stupid bullshit over the past 3 years. It doesn’t, and all the anti mask anti vaccine idiots have blood on their hands that people like me will never, ever let them forget.

                    So until we find actual proof, this remains soundly in the category of unknowns.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Select? Attention? Hmm. That sounds like it has agency. But then a disease can’t have agency, so it must be someone with agency using the disease. Almost as if it’s a bioweapon.

                If it’s targeted, that is.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Nope. Kennedy was when he mentioned COVID “targeting” certain ethnic groups in virtually the same breath as discussing bioweapons targeting certain ethnic groups. One thing directly related to the other. He didn’t have to draw a map.

          • Mostly_Harmless@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            He was talking about covid in the context of engineered bioweapons. That the virus has been more severe with people of color can, and has been explained by racial inequity and access to care.

            “The overrepresentation of African Americans among confirmed COVID-19 cases and number of deaths underscores the fact that the coronavirus pandemic, far from being an equalizer, is amplifying or even worsening existing social inequalities tied to race, class, and access to the health care system.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7762908/#:~:text=Approximately 97.9 out of every,Asians (40.4 per 100%2C000).

            • MasterOBee Master/King@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              What makes you think he was talking about covid in the context of engineered bioweapons?

              He said “there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact.”

              You provided one such paper that shows that there are differences in how covid impacted different communities. Whether that’s due to obesity rates, socioeconomic status or healthcare access.

              "Kennedy later posted a video statement on Sunday, saying in part: “Nobody has suggested that these were deliberately engineered changes and I certainly don’t believe that they were deliberately engineered,”