Newly revealed letters contradict RFK Jr's Senate testimony on Samoa trip
Newly obtained letters indicate that US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr misrepresented his 2019 trip to Samoa during Senate confirmation hearings, a visit that preceded a measles outbreak that killed 83 people.
Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press appear to contradict testimony that US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr gave during two Senate confirmation hearings last year, in which he repeatedly said his 2019 visit to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines.
In a letter Kennedy wrote to then Samoan prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi in January 2019, he used the words "vaccine" or "vaccination" eight times. He explained he wanted to study what happened with Samoa's measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, following the deaths of two children in 2018 after an improperly mixed dose was administered. Kennedy proposed that his team conduct a detailed health informatics assessment.
The prime minister replied a month later, welcoming an independent assessment of Samoa's MMR vaccines by Kennedy's team. In a separate May 2019 email, a colleague from Kennedy's organisation, Children's Health Defense (CHD), described the upcoming trip as part of a vaccine-related "mission".
Kennedy travelled to Samoa in May and June 2019 with his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, while leading CHD, a group known for anti-vaccine activism. The visit has become one of the most controversial episodes of his career, with critics saying it emboldened anti-vaccine activists on the island. Months later, with vaccination rates still low, a measles outbreak swept Samoa, sickening thousands and killing 83 people, mostly children under five.
During questioning by senators Ron Wyden and Edward Markey, Kennedy repeatedly denied any vaccine connection to the trip, saying its purpose was to introduce a medical informatics system.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the 2019 trip was unrelated to vaccines and called any suggestion Kennedy lied to Congress false and defamatory. Kennedy was not under oath during the hearings, so the statements would not constitute perjury, though attorneys say Democrats could use the discrepancy to pursue hearings or other action if they gain control of Congress after November's elections.
