(NewsNation) — Kerry Kennedy, the sister of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has “strongly condemned” the Democratic presidential candidate for claiming COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

“I strongly condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting. His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+ year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination,” Kerry Kennedy, president of RFK Human Rights, said in a statement.

RFK Jr. made the remarks at a press event Tuesday.

“There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said in a video obtained by the New York Post. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

He later attempted to walk back the comments after backlash from other Democrats, claiming on Twitter the New York Post story was “mistaken” and an attempt to “discredit me as a crank.”

The Democratic presidential candidate has drawn scrutiny over his controversial views on vaccines. At a NewsNation town hall last month, Kennedy Jr. said the “anti-vaccine” moniker is being used to silence him.

“I’ve never been anti-vaccine, and I’ve said that hundreds and hundreds of times but it doesn’t matter,” he said at the town hall. “Because that is a way of silencing me. Using a pejorative to describe me is a way of silencing me or marginalizing me.”

Kennedy Jr. has previously said his views on vaccines have “damaged relationships even with people in my family.”

Kennedy Jr. chairs the Children’s Health Defense and has been called “the ringleader of the misinformation campaign.” Facebook and Instagram have previously removed the accounts of the organization for spreading medical misinformation.

The Hill contributed to this report.