During a confirmation hearing last year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told senators that his 2019 trip to Samoa was unrelated to vaccines. Newly obtained letters, released by the Associated Press and The Guardian, reveal a different picture.
Letter to Samoa’s prime minister
In a January 20, 2019 letter addressed to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Kennedy wrote that he wanted his team to conduct a “detailed health informatics assessment” of Samoa’s measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines. The word “vaccine” appears eight times in the correspondence.
Kennedy’s request followed the deaths of two children who had received the MMR vaccine in July 2018. He suggested the deaths might have resulted from manufacturing issues and proposed a study to determine whether specific vaccine lots were responsible.
Contradiction with congressional testimony
When questioned by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Senator Edward Markey, Kennedy repeatedly asserted that the Samoa visit was about introducing a medical informatics system, not about vaccines. He told Wyden, “I went there, nothing to do with vaccines,” and repeated the claim to Markey the next day.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded to AP inquiries that the trip was “unrelated to vaccines” and called any implication that Kennedy lied “defamatory.” HHS noted that Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing, though knowingly providing false testimony to Congress is a crime.
Political fallout
Democratic senators Markey and Wyden have called for further investigation, with Wyden saying he will press Republicans to refer the matter to the Justice Department. However, the Republican‑led Congress, aligned with President Donald Trump’s administration, is unlikely to pursue impeachment or a formal inquiry.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate Health Committee, initially supported Kennedy’s confirmation, citing the secretary’s pledge to keep the vaccine advisory committee unchanged. After Kennedy removed all 17 members of that committee and appointed his own advisers, Cassidy said his trust was broken.
Impact on Samoa
At the time of Kennedy’s visit, Samoa had halted all vaccinations for ten months following the 2018 deaths. Vaccination rates fell dramatically, and a measles outbreak later killed 83 people, mostly children under five. Public‑health experts say anti‑vaccine activists, some of whom Kennedy met while in Samoa, may have amplified vaccine hesitancy during the crisis.
State Department and UNICEF officials, according to the AP and Guardian, privately discussed that the trip was about vaccines, contradicting the public statements from HHS and Kennedy.
Legal considerations
Attorneys note that false statements to Congress can be prosecuted, though such cases are rare. The new letters could provide a basis for hearings or investigations, but any action would depend on the political will of Congress.
Both the White House and HHS declined to comment further, and Samoa’s prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.
