Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent years disseminating false information about vaccines in a time when spreading conspiracy theories has become a powerful way to grow a constituency.
Padrig and Gina Fahey hold a photo of their son, Braden, 12, as they stand for a portrait in California on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Braden collapsed at football practice in August 2022 and died of a malformed blood vessel in the brain. The Faheys couldn’t understand how Braden’s face appeared on the cover of the book “Cause Unknown,” which was co-published by an anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or why his name appeared inside it.
Braden never received the vaccine. His death in August 2022 was due to a malformed blood vessel in his brain. No one ever contacted them to ask about their son’s death, or for permission to use the photo. No one asked to confirm the date of his death — which the book misdated by a year. When the Faheys and residents of their town in California tried to contact the publisher and author to get Braden and his picture taken out of the book, no one responded.
Now, Kennedy’s decision to drop his Democratic bid for president and run as an independent gives him a new spotlight in an election that’s currently heading toward a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. There’s concern in both parties that he could emerge as a spoiler who could affect the outcome of the campaign in unexpected ways.
Braden’s parents have read vicious comments from people who falsely blame vaccines for their son’s death. They say seeing Braden’s memory being misrepresented by Kennedy and others has been deeply painful. The AP found dozens of individuals included in the book died of known causes not related to vaccines, including suicide, choking while intoxicated, overdose and allergic reaction. One person died in 2019.
A picture of Braden Fahey, bottom left, is seen in"Cause Unknown," a book that falsely implies COVID-19 shots were behind a wave of youth deaths, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in California. Fahey, who had never received a COVID-19 vaccine, collapsed at football practice in August 2022 and died of a malformed blood vessel in the brain. The book was published by Skyhorse, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy also has a consulting deal with Skyhorse that personally paid him $125,000 since August 2022 for scouting out books for the company, according to . Lyons said that deal has so far resulted in 27 books of different genres including children’s books, mysteries and cookbooks, but declined to name them.
“I thought he was heroic, because he was saying the things publicly that other people were too afraid to say,” said Lydia Greene. Because of his national profile, Kennedy’s work has ripple effects beyond the most devoted anti-vaccine activists. Dr. Todd Wolynn, a Pittsburgh pediatrician who works to clarify the facts about vaccines on social media, said despite Kennedy’s lack of clinical experience, he has an outsized influence on his followers.“He uses a very big platform to amplify disinformation that leads people down a path to make a decision that’s not evidence based,” Wolynn said. “And as a result, it puts their own lives, the lives of their children, the lives of their family, in harm’s way.
The Republican candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said in a July podcast interview that if he’d had the facts he would not have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19. The administration of fellow GOP candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has broken with CDC guidance to advise Floridians under 65 not to get the latest COVID-19 booster.
That year, dozens of children died of measles. Many factors led to the wave of deaths, including medical mistakes and poor decisions by government authorities. But people involved in the response who spoke to AP said Kennedy and the anti-vaccine activists he supported made things worse.Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, foreground right, shakes hands with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he left the the 57th Independence Celebration in Mulinu’u, Samoa, on June 1, 2019.
The crisis of low vaccination rates and skepticism created an environment that was “ripe for the picking for someone like RFK to come in and in assist with the promotion of those views,” said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist from New Zealand who worked on the effort to build back trust in the measles vaccine in Samoa.
“I had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa. I never told anybody not to vaccinate. I didn’t, you know, go there for any reason to do with that.” As a crowd gathered outside the capitol, Kennedy stood to speak. Two large posters behind him featured Pan’s image, with the word “LIAR” stamped across his face in blood-red paint. Pan told AP he felt the staging was intended to incite the crowd against him.
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