Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is receiving renewed scrutiny and criticism for his alleged role in a 2019 measles outbreak that killed over 80 people in Samoa.
This week, Kennedy is scheduled to meet with Democratic senators at the Capitol to ask for their votes to confirm him.
Kennedy was chosen by Trump to lead the agency, which has oversight of key organizations like Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health, despite Kennedy’s history of attacking vaccination and promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
In a new ad campaign and accompanying mini documentary, the advocacy group 314 Action is highlighting Kennedy’s actions promoting vaccine misinformation in Samoa. Kennedy traveled to the nation in 2019, meeting with government officials and anti-vaccine influencers. Soon after, a measles outbreak killed at least 83 people and hospitalized 1,867. Most of the victims of the outbreak were babies and young children.
In 2021, Kennedy wrote a blog post that described the deadly outbreak of measles as “mild.”
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In 314 Action’s ad, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who is also a doctor, said he visited Samoa as part of a vaccination campaign.
“In the months leading up to that, RFK Jr. had spread so much disinformation that the country stopped vaccinating,” Green said. “And that caused a tragic and fatal spread of the measles.”
In the ad, Green accused Kennedy of legitimizing “fake health groups,” an action which Green said “killed children.”
Dr. Heath Chung, an infectious disease specialist, also appears in the ad and attributes the outbreak in Samoa to the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.
Samoan health officials have also recently criticized Kennedy’s nomination, citing the effect his promotion of misinformation had in their country.
“We cannot and should not stay silent. We know what this appointment means. It means more platforms for anti-vaxxers and less funding for vaccines and health programs,” Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma, who serves as that country’s director of general health, told The Guardian in November.
Polling shows opposition to Kennedy’s nomination once voters are made aware of his positions. In a poll fielded Nov. 27-29 from Protect Our Care/Data for Progress, only 39% of respondents supported the nomination after they were told about Kennedy’s opposition to drug development, disease research, and vaccination.
In his first administration, Trump presided over serious mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak. By the time he left office in January 2021, more than 396,800 people had died from the virus. Kennedy’s nomination is a sign that Trump intends to continue down the same dangerous path when it comes to public health.
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