NEW YORK — Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of many nation’s most well-known political households, is working for president.

Kennedy filed an announcement of candidacy Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The 69-year-old’s marketing campaign to problem incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a protracted shot. Self-help writer Marianne Williamson can be working within the Democratic race.

Kennedy, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of his slain brother Robert F. Kennedy, was as soon as a bestselling writer and environmental lawyer who labored on points reminiscent of clear water.

But greater than 15 years in the past, he turned fixated on a perception that vaccines aren't protected. He emerged as one of many main voices within the anti-vaccine motion, and his work has been described by public well being specialists and even members of his circle of relatives as deceptive and harmful.

Kennedy had been lengthy concerned within the anti-vaccine motion, however the effort intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and improvement of the COVID-19 vaccine.

His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, prospered throughout the pandemic, with revenues greater than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, in accordance with filings made with charity regulators.

His group has focused false claims at teams that could be extra susceptible to mistrust the vaccine, together with moms and Black Americans, specialists have mentioned, which may have resulted in deaths throughout the pandemic.

Kennedy launched a ebook in 2021, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” wherein he accused the U.S.’s high infectious illness physician of helping in “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy” and promoted unproven COVID-19 therapies reminiscent of ivermectin, which is supposed to deal with parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

His push in opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine has linked him at instances with anti-democratic figures and teams. Kennedy has appeared at occasions pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with individuals who cheered or downplayed the rebellion on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

A photograph posted on Instagram confirmed Kennedy backstage at a July 2021 Reawaken America occasion with former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and anti-vaccine profiteer Charlene Bollinger. All three have promoted the lie concerning the 2020 election being stolen.

The photograph was posted however later eliminated by Bollinger, who has appeared with Kennedy at a number of occasions. She and her husband sponsored an anti-vaccine, pro-Trump rally close to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Bollinger celebrated the assault and her husband tried to enter the Capitol. Kennedy later appeared in a video for his or her Super PAC.

Kennedy has repeatedly invoked Nazis and the Holocaust when speaking about measures geared toward mitigating the unfold of COVID-19, reminiscent of masks necessities and vaccine mandates. He has typically apologized for these feedback, together with when he steered that individuals in 2022 had it worse than Anne Frank, {the teenager} who died in a Nazi focus camp after hiding together with her household in a secret annex in an Amsterdam home for 2 years.

Kennedy has at instances invoked his household’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, together with typically utilizing photographs of President Kennedy.

His sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the worldwide rights group based by their mom, Ethel, mentioned her brother has at instances eliminated among the content material at her request.

She instructed the Associated Press in a 2021 interview her brother is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.”

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