Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on history: what the evidence says · JRE #1999
SUBJECT: HISTORY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
The Spanish flu, there's, you know, not a definitive, but very, very strong evidence. The Spanish flu was vaccine-induced flu. The deaths were vaccine-induced, but originally they said it was a flu.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Kennedy claimed the 1918 Spanish flu deaths were vaccine-induced rather than caused by influenza. No influenza vaccine existed in 1918; the first licensed flu vaccine was not approved for widespread use until 1945, decades after the pandemic. Genetic material recovered from the preserved tissue of multiple 1918 victims, first sequenced starting in 1997, has been identified as an H1N1 influenza A virus, establishing the pathogen behind the pandemic. A 2008 study by NIH researchers Morens, Taubenberger, and Fauci, examining pathology and bacteriology data from over 8,000 autopsies, found that most 1918 deaths involved secondary bacterial pneumonia, a well-documented complication that occurs after influenza virus damages the respiratory tract and allows bacterial invasion, not evidence that victims lacked influenza. A fact-check of this specific claim (including this Rogan podcast appearance) found no supporting evidence for the vaccine-induced-pandemic theory.