RFK Jr. Blasted for Suggesting COVID 'Ethnically Targeted' to Spare Jews

Democratic 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was blasted online for suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic was an "ethnically targeted" bioweapon that spared Jews.

Kennedy Jr. teased out this idea at a press event at an Upper East Side restaurant during a Q&A period at Tony's Di Napoli, the New York Post reported on Saturday, sharing a video it obtained of him making those comments. The conservative newspaper said that the presidential hopeful claimed that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon "ethnically targeted" to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

"COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately," Kennedy Jr. said during the event, the Post reported. "COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."

However on Twitter on Saturday, Kennedy Jr. wrote that the Post's story was "mistaken," adding that he "never, ever" suggested that COVID-19 was targeted to spare Jews.

"I accurately pointed out—during an off-the-record conversation—that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews," he tweeted.

"In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered," Kennedy Jr. added, sharing a study published on the National Library of Medicine's website that was centered around the genetic susceptibility of COVID-19 across different populations, including Africans and African Americans.

Newsweek reached out by email to several experts specialized in mapping the genetic architecture of COVID-19 to ask about their thoughts on Kennedy's theory.

"Although genetic factors are associated with COVID severity, socioeconomic factors and predisposition factors (diabetes, obesity) outweigh the genetic factors [and] are much greater risk factors," Michael Snyder, a genetics professor at Stanford Medicine, told Newsweek in an email on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Kennedy Jr.'s reported comments sparked criticism on Twitter, with Bill Kristol, the director of the nonprofit Defending Democracy Together, calling Kennedy Jr. a "conspiratorial lunatic, and should be treated as such."

"If you still think there is a left or even non-insane case for supporting or even indulging RFK Jr. then you have been conned or have conned yourself. Madness. Racist, conspiratorial, dangerous madness," tweeted MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan.

Former editor at the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, Mark Jacob, tweeted: "Here's RFK Jr. suggesting that COVID was 'ethnically targeted' to spare Chinese and Jews. This kind of bulls*** is toxic to our society. Responsible media would write this guy off now."

"Conspiracy theorists always end up spewing antisemitism," Twitter user Alejandra Caraballo wrote.

Echoing Caraballo's remarks, conservative TV personality Meghan McCain wrote that "a dinner hosted by RFK Jr. being composed of virulent antisemitism, crackpot covid conspiracy theories, shouting and old men farting is.... pretty much exactly what I would have imagined RFJ Jr. events are like."

Marianne Williamson, a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, also denounced her fellow Democrat's comments.

"I strongly denounce comments made earlier this week by RFK Jr. implying that Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese were relatively 'spared' by COVID-19, while Caucasian and Black people were specifically targeted. Whether intentionally or not, his remarks amplify sinister and unfounded notions that are both anti-Semitic and anti-Chinese," she tweeted.

Kennedy Jr., the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, has often agreed with some conservatives and Republicans who floated varying theories about the origins of COVID-19. He was even well-known for being outspoken against pandemic restrictions that were put in place to help curb the spread of the virus.

Kennedy Jr. also opposed the COVID vaccine and released a book in 2021 titled, The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he claimed that the country's top infectious disease doctor is assisting in a "historic coup d'etat against Western democracy" and touted unfounded COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, the Associated Press previously reported.

While U.S. government agencies largely remain divided about the origins of the disease, most scientists initially believed the virus was likely transmitted to "patient zero" via a bat in an open-air market in Wuhan, China. However, a second theory that the virus could have been man-made and accidentally leaked from a nearby lab has also gained traction.

The Wall Street Journal reported in late February that the United States Department of Energy (DOE) became the second federal agency to determine, with "low confidence," that the virus likely originated in a Wuhan lab, joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The determination came as a result of new intelligence. The DOE oversees several U.S. national labs, some of which conduct advanced biological research, according to the Journal.

Still, the intelligence community also remains divided about how COVID-19 originated. Four other agencies, however, maintain that the virus likely spread naturally, while two remain undecided about its origins, according to the Journal. The FBI concluded that the pandemic resulted from a lab leak with "moderate confidence" in 2021.

China has denied lab leak theories. Last June, the Chinese government's official press agency, Xinhua, dismissed any suggestion that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab, saying the theory was "concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes."

Update 7/16/2023, 12:54 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Snyder.