‘We learned the hard way’: Samoa remembers a deadly measles outbreak and a visit from RFK Jr

Fa'aoso Tuivale, 30, holds a picture of her three children who died in the 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa while sitting on their grave. Photograph: Michelle Duff/The Guardian

The week before her three children died, Fa’aoso Tuivale and her husband took them for a swim in the river flowing behind their house in the Samoan village of Lauli’i.

Itila, 3, and his twin siblings, Tamara and Sale, 13 months, had a fever and their parents hoped to cool them down. The children were ill with measles and were not vaccinated. When they worsened, on a Sunday, Fa’aoso took them to hospital in Apia, 9km away. They were seen, and sent home.