Emails Suggest RFK Jr. Misled Senate on 2019 Samoa Vaccine‑Focused Trip

Newly released State Department and United Nations emails obtained by The Guardian and AP show that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2019 trip to Samoa was organized around his vaccine‑safety concerns, directly undercutting his sworn Senate testimony that the visit had 'nothing to do with vaccines.' The correspondence indicates a U.S. Embassy staffer helped connect Kennedy’s anti‑vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense, with Samoan officials, and contemporaneous accounts describe his purpose as related to vaccine safety rather than simply introducing a medical data system. Samoan officials have said Kennedy’s visit boosted the credibility of local anti‑vaccine activists just before a measles outbreak sickened thousands and killed 83 people, mostly children under 5. The emails were turned over by the State Department only after a FOIA lawsuit, and at least one U.S. senator is now openly questioning whether the current health secretary lied to Congress during his 2025 confirmation hearings. The revelations land as Kennedy uses his post in the Trump administration to overhaul federal immunization guidance and as large measles outbreaks, including more than 875 cases in South Carolina, push the U.S. to the brink of losing its measles elimination status.