Questions about deadly Samoan measles outbreak raised during RFK Jr’s Senate confirmation hearing
WASHINGTON — The deadly Samoan measles outbreak in 2019 was raised during the confirmation hearings for Robert F Kennedy Jr in the US senate, yesterday.
Kennedy is US President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the department of Health and Human services.
He has been accused of promoting mistrust of vaccines while visiting Samoa in 2019, with the measles outbreak on the island killing 83 people, many of them young children.
Senator Ron Wyden accused Kennedy of contributing to the deaths by "spreading lies" on the island.cKennedy told the Senate his trip to Samoa was not related to vaccines, but instead to help digitize health records.
He said the vaccination rate on the island was already low before he arrived.
"I went there for nothing to do with vaccines. I never gave any public statements about vaccines," he said.
"You will not find a single Samoan who says I didn't get a vaccination due to Robert Kennedy."
However, following the trip, Kennedy wrote that it had been organized by a local vaccine critic.
At the time, New Zealand vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris said Kennedy had weakened an "already fragile trust" in Samoa.
"A person who has the status of RFK Jr just I guess further amplifies what those local anti-vaccine advocates had been saying," she said.
"And there's a big price to pay, isn't there? I mean, these were children's lives."
Kennedy said if he was confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services he would not interfere with people's rights to get vaccinated for measles and polio.