Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr Went to Samoa to Spread Antivax Ideas and Lied About It to Congress

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

RFK Jr WENT TO SAMOA TO SPREAD ANTIVAX IDEAS AND LIED ABOUT IT TO CONGRESS

IN SUMMARY:

Four months before 79 Samoan children and 4 adults died from the measles in Samoa, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made a special trip to visit this small Pacific territory. Kennedy’s visit occurred around the time that the Samoan government was restarting its childhood Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) immunization program, which had been paused for several months after a nurse mixed the vaccine with a muscle relaxant, killing two children. At his confirmation hearing in 2025, Secretary Kennedy assured Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) that his trip to Samoa "had nothing to do with vaccines," but recently discovered emails prove Kennedy lied about his intentions, both at the time of his trip and at his Senate confirmation hearing six years later. As Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) warned us, Kennedy “flew to Samoa to discourage people from taking the measles vaccine. And the reason was that he wanted to run a ‘natural experiment’ to see how people would fare against the disease without protections.” 

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

When Kennedy was head of the antivaccine organization, Children's Health Defense, in 2019, childhood immunization rates in Samoa plummeted to below 33%. The previous summer a nurse had mistakenly mixed the powdered MMR vaccine with a liquid anesthetic, killing two babies in an appalling accident. The government recalled the MMR vaccine and suspended its immunization program for nine months, until the cause of the accident and the safety of the MMR vaccine was confirmed. When routine immunizations started up again in April 2019, parents were still reluctant to vaccinate their children. “We needed to rebuild confidence,” said Dr. Take Naseri, Samoa’s Director of Health at the time. Kennedy went to Samoa in June to do the opposite.

Kennedy’s trip was facilitated by a Samoan traditional healer, Edwin Tamasese, who secured an invitation from the Prime Minister Malielegaoi. Tamase would later be arrested for selling his useless measles treatment protocol, developed with Kennedy, of vitamins A and C and papaya extract. But, according to newly published emails, during the spring of 2019 a state department employee at the U.S. Embassy in Samoa helped arrange introductions for Kennedy to Samoan government officials and a VIP invitation to an Independence Day celebration. The Ambassador was warned that “the real reason Kennedy is coming is to raise awareness about vaccines, more specifically some of the health concerns associated with vaccinating (from his point of view).”  

Kennedy went to Samoa to sow doubt about the safety of measles vaccines, according to  Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The Samoan Director-General of Health, Dr. Alec Ekeroma, noted, “Anti-vaxxers from New Zealand came to be with him here.” Hawai’i's current Governor Josh Green, M.D., led an emergency medical mission to help stop the measles epidemic in the fall of 2019. He explained that “RFK went to Samoa and legitimized fake health groups. That killed children.” 

In meetings with Samoan government officials, including the Prime Minister, Kennedy tried to convince them to use a health informatics system that would collect data about the “overall health” of Samoan children and, in his own words, take advantage “the ‘natural experiment’ created by the respite from vaccines.” Kennedy wanted to access Samoan health data for a study to be conducted by CHD-affiliated researchers on vaccine safety. Samoa did not agree to hand over its data.

The “natural experiment” turned into a national catastrophe. Eighty three people, most of whom were children under four, died in a measles outbreak that lasted from September 2019 to January 2020. To slow the epidemic, Samoa had to issue a State of Emergency: Schools were closed, gatherings and travel restricted. Vaccination became mandatory for children and women of childbearing age. Kennedy still publicly denies that the Samoan outbreak was due to the virus and continues to blame vaccines. 
 

WHY IT MATTERS:

Kennedy lied to Congress about the goal of his trip to Samoa. Lying to Congress is perjury and an impeachable offense. Some Senators would like to use Kennedy’s lies during his confirmation hearing to remove him from office.

For Kennedy, Samoa’s children were pawns in a "natural experiment" about the health outcomes of unvaccinated children. More recently, under Kennedy’s leadership, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) approved an unethical study in Guinea Bissau which planned to randomize newborns to not receive a hepatitis B vaccine, despite the fact that 18% of the population carry the virus and the World Health Organization recommends a birth dose. Fortunately, that study has been paused due to its serious ethical problems. Now, Kennedy is experimenting on American children. The CDC recently removed the Hepatitis B vaccine from the childhood immunization schedule, guaranteeing that more American babies will be infected and suffer long term liver injury.

The Samoan episode also showed Kennedy’s preference for fake cures over proven prevention. In Samoa, he pushed a cocktail of vitamins and papaya extract. In the U.S., during the largest measles outbreak in 30 years, Kennedy has downplayed the seriousness of the disease, offered only tepid support for vaccines and suggested the best defense is a balanced diet and treatments which do nothing for a viral disease. Kennedy’s advice was wisely rejected by Samoan officials in 2019; he remains a danger today and should be removed from office.
 

Contributors to this post are: Benedicte Callan, Ph.D., Aurora Horstkamp, M.D., Bruce Mirkin, Kathylynn Saboda, M.S., Miriam Rabkin M.D., M.P.H.