By When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited in June 2019, Samoa was on the brink of crisis.
The government had suspended measles vaccinations the year before after an improperly prepared vaccine killed two babies. Though the vaccinations resumed months later, many parents weren’t convinced that the shots were safe, leaving thousands of their smallest children unprotected against a highly contagious disease as it was resurging across the globe.
With fewer than a third of Samoa’s babies vaccinated, experts and officials feared for the Pacific Island nation. But Kennedy saw an opportunity.
Kennedy, then chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit, later recounted online that Samoan “government officials, including the Prime Minister were curious to measure health outcomes following the ‘natural experiment’ created by the respite from vaccines.” Wherever the idea originated, Kennedy was quick to offer them a way to do it.
It’s a milder version of an idea he has long championed at home — that the safety of vaccines, well established by scientific consensus, needs to be studied further in the kind of trials that would depend on a large group of children going without them. With a renowned health informatics expert in tow, Kennedy visited Samoa in 2019, to pitch the prime minister and ministry of health on an information system that would track the impact of medical interventions, including vaccines, on the nation’s 200,000 citizens.
Months after Kennedy’s visit, the question of what would happen to Samoa’s unvaccinated babies was answered. A measles outbreak swept the country, sickening thousands and killing 83, mostly small children. As measles raged, Kennedy stayed connected to the island, writing to the prime minister to raise concerns about the vaccine and providing medical guidance to a local anti-vaccine activist who posted false claims about the vaccination campaign and promoted unproven alternative cures.
Kennedy’s time in Samoa and influence there have come under renewed scrutiny since President Donald Trump announced his nomination as secretary of health and human services. In that role, Kennedy would oversee U.S. public health policies and programs, including those related to vaccines, at a time when childhood vaccination rates are dipping and the threat of emerging diseases like bird flu is growing. Kennedy’s spokesperson within the Trump transition team declined to respond to questions about Kennedy’s visit to Samoa.
Kennedy, who did not return requests for comment, has repeatedly denied any responsibility for Samoa’s outbreak and its consequences. “I had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa,” Kennedy said in 2021 in an interview for the 2023 documentary “Shot in the Arm.” In 2021, he told the Samoa Observer that he and the prime minister had talked “a limited amount” about vaccines during his visit.
He has also questioned whether measles caused the spate of deaths, calling it a “very controversial supposition” in a 2023 interview with NBC News.
