New Documents Refute RFK Jr.’s Confirmation Hearing Testimony on Samoa Trip and Vaccines: Report
The letter says Kennedy wanted to study the MMR vaccine and uses the word vaccine eight times, contradicting his Senate testimony.
- New documents obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian refute testimony from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who told Congress his 2019 Samoa visit had "nothing to do with vaccines" despite letters showing he sought to study MMR vaccines.
- In a January 20, 2019, letter to then-Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Kennedy expressed a desire to study Samoa's MMR vaccines, suggesting his team investigate whether the deaths of two children stemmed from manufacturing issues.
- Critics argue the visit emboldened anti-vaccine activists in Samoa, which subsequently experienced a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children under 5. The Samoan government halted all vaccinations for 10 months following the crisis.
- Sen. Cassidy, who voted to confirm Kennedy on a 52-48 vote, said his trust was broken after Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the federal vaccine advisory committee. "The commitments that were made to me have been violated," Cassidy said on CBS's Face the Nation.
- The Department of Health and Human Services maintained the visit "was unrelated to vaccines," labeling claims that Secretary Kennedy lied to Congress as "not only false but outright defamatory" in a written statement.
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74 Articles
AP report: RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then a prominent anti-vaccine activist, preempted the 2019 visit with a letter to the Samoan prime minister requesting to study the Pacific island nation’s measles, mumps and rubella vaccines after the deaths of two children who had received them. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chosen by President Donald Trump to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Ben Curtis/AP The Secretary of Health of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., repeatedly stated to parliamentarians who had a decisive role in his confirmation last year in office that a visit to Samoa in 2019, before a deadly measles outbreak, "had nothing to do with vaccines." New documents obtained by the Associated Press and the *…
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