Newly-obtained documents contradict assurances given by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to senators during his confirmation process last year, when he repeatedly claimed a 2019 trip to Samoa prior to a deadly measles outbreak had "nothing to do with vaccines."
The records, obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian, reveal that Kennedy—then a prominent anti-vaccine campaigner—wrote to the Samoan prime minister ahead of his visit, asking to evaluate the nation’s measles, mumps and rubella vaccines following the deaths of two children. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
