\n<\/p>\n
Three members of Congress say US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr lied during his Senate confirmation hearings in response to newly revealed emails that undermine his testimony that a trip he took to Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak had \u201cnothing to do with vaccines\u201d.<\/p>\n
The governor of Hawaii, a medical doctor who responded to the crisis, also spoke out \u2013 saying that the disclosure of the emails by the Guardian and the Associated Press show Kennedy misled the Senate and that he should step down.<\/p>\n
Kennedy, a lawyer and longtime anti-vaccine activist before his appointment as health secretary, was asked about the trip several times during two days of confirmation hearings last year. He repeatedly denied that his reason for going there in June 2019 had anything to do with vaccines. But the records show staff at the US embassy and the United Nations wrote emails shortly before Kennedy\u2019s visit saying he was visiting because of his concerns about vaccine safety.<\/p>\n
Samoan officials later said Kennedy\u2019s trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists ahead of the measles outbreak that sickened thousands and killed 83 people, mostly children under age five.<\/p>\n
The new reporting comes after a year in which Kennedy has used his power as health secretary to remake federal vaccine recommendations and policies to align with his anti-vaccine views and to sow doubts about vaccine safety. Meanwhile, measles has gained a foothold in communities around the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cRFK Jr is a liar. He lied to me about his anti-vax Samoa trip,\u201d Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said in a social media post over the weekend. Markey was one of the senators who asked Kennedy about the visit during the hearings. \u201cThe CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel is now stacked with conspiracists and the US is positioned to lose its measles elimination status. RFK Jr. must be removed now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a written statement to the Guardian, Markey added that making false statements to Congress is a federal crime.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for Kennedy at the Department of Health and Human Services did not reply to repeated requests for comment for this story.<\/p>\n
Haley Stevens, a Democratic representative from Michigan, said the new reporting by the Guardian and AP shows Kennedy lied to Congress. Stevens, who introduced articles of impeachment against Kennedy in December accusing him of undermining public health and abusing his authority, said misleading Congress is another impeachable offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith measles cases skyrocketing nationwide driven by RFK Jr.\u2019s nonstop stream of conspiracy theories, it\u2019s time for Congress to put politics aside and support my Articles of Impeachment to remove Secretary Kennedy from office and restore Americans\u2019 faith in our public health system,\u201d Stevens said in an email. Stevens\u2019 impeachment effort is considered unlikely to succeed, given that the House is in Republican hands and Democratic leadership reportedly opposes the effort.<\/p>\n
Kennedy has said he is not anti-vaccine, though he has raised safety concerns about the measles vaccine as measles spread. Asked Sunday on CNN whether the spread of measles was a consequence of the administration undermining support for the measles vaccine, Dr Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, defended Kennedy and said people should get vaccinated.<\/p>\n
The Guardian and AP obtained the records from the US state department through a lawsuit brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.<\/p>\n
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who also questioned Kennedy about the trip during his confirmation hearings, told the Guardian last week that Kennedy had lied to Congress about his role in Samoa. \u201cHe and his allies will be held responsible,\u201d Wyden said in a statement ahead of the story\u2019s publication on Friday by the Guardian and AP.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Prime minister Tuila\u02bbepa Sa\u02bbilele Malielegaoi shakes hands with Robert F Kennedy Jr at the 57th independence celebration in Mulinu\u2019u, Samoa, on 1 June 2019. <\/span> Photograph: Misiona Simo\/AP<\/p>\n The crisis in Samoa began in July 2018, when two babies died after being given a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that had been improperly mixed with expired muscle relaxant anesthetic. The government stopped the vaccine program for months, leaving many children unprotected.<\/p>\n The Guardian and AP reported that Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine group, Children\u2019s Health Defense, started reaching out to try to reach Samoan government officials through a local anti-vaccine activist in January 2019. Kennedy visited that June and met with the prime minister and health officials, as well as a group of figures who have cast doubt on vaccines. A measles outbreak was declared that October.<\/p>\n Kennedy has said he went to Samoa to introduce a medical data system, but that he \u201cended up having conversations with people, some of whom I never intended to meet\u201d.<\/p>\n Hawaii\u2019s governor, Josh Green, was the lieutenant governor of Hawaii in December 2019 when he went to Samoa as part of a medical mission to stem the spread of measles by getting tens of thousands of people vaccinated in a matter of days.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we went to the hospitals there, they were completely overrun by sick patients with measles head to toe, many of whom were dying that day,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe went into one village and an infant had just died from the measles. The child was still warm from the fever that had overwhelmed her. And there we stood, and all of her siblings needed to be vaccinated next.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy has said in the past that his visit did not influence people\u2019s decisions on whether to vaccinate. \u201cI had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa. I never told anybody not to vaccinate,\u201d he told the 2023 documentary Shot in the Arm. \u201cI didn\u2019t, you know, go there for any reason to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n But Green charges that the misinformation and conspiracy theories that Kennedy spread helped cause vaccination rates to crash in the Pacific island nation.<\/p>\n Green said that while Kennedy could be well-suited for other roles in the Trump administration, such as in nutrition or environmental policy, he is serving in the wrong role as health secretary overseeing vaccine policy and research, which are a matter of national security.<\/p>\n \u201cThe further we move away from our ability to do the right research on vaccines, the more vulnerable our country is gonna be,\u201d he said. \u201cThe further we move away from science-based recommendations on vaccines, the larger you\u2019re gonna see these outbreaks all across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawaii has a sizable population of people with Samoan heritage. Green said the Guardian and AP had \u201cdone the right work to shine light on what really happened in Samoa\u201d.<\/p>\n Senators deciding whether to confirm a nominee need to do so based on who they really are, and Kennedy misled them, Green said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unacceptable to not share the truth with the committees when they\u2019re confirming you,\u201d he added. \u201cYou cannot misrepresent what you\u2019ve done in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three members of Congress say US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr lied during his Senate confirmation hearings in response to newly revealed emails that undermine his testimony that a trip he took to Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak had \u201cnothing to do with vaccines\u201d. 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