In 2019, three members of his family -- his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, brother Joseph P. Kennedy II and niece Maeve Kennedy McKean -- forcefully denounced his anti-vaccine views in a Politico Magazine op-ed, arguing that he was "part of a misinformation campaign that's having heartbreaking -- and deadly -- consequences."
Kennedy was a strident critic of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci. He also railed against the coronavirus vaccine and vaccine mandates.
In 2022, Kennedy invoked Nazi Germany in an anti-vaccine speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The previous year, Instagram took down his account "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines."