Health

Samoa’s Top Health Official Rebukes RFK Jr. Over Measles Outbreak Comments

Samoa’s Director-General of Health, Dr. Alec Ekeroma, has strongly rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims regarding the 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa, calling them “a complete lie” and “a total fabrication.”

During contentious U.S. Senate hearings last week—where Kennedy faced scrutiny over his nomination for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services—he suggested that some of the 83 deaths from the outbreak were not caused by measles, stating, “We don’t know what was killing them.”

U.S. senators grilled Kennedy over his 2019 trip to Samoa, accusing him of minimizing his role in the outbreak.

The measles epidemic devastated the Pacific island nation, which has a population of 200,000. Many deaths—mostly children under the age of five—occurred amid historically low vaccination rates, exacerbated by public distrust following the incorrect preparation of vaccines that led to the deaths of two infants in 2018.

As a result, the Samoan government suspended vaccinations for 10 months before the outbreak, during which time Kennedy visited the country. His trip was organized by a Samoan anti-vaccine activist, as Kennedy himself acknowledged in a 2021 blog post.

On Wednesday, Kennedy denied that his visit contributed to vaccine hesitancy, and his spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Dr. Ekeroma dismissed Kennedy’s assertion that many of the deceased did not actually have measles.

“It’s a huge denial,” Ekeroma said, emphasizing that doctors from multiple countries had traveled to Samoa specifically to treat measles patients.

He further debunked Kennedy’s claim that post-mortem tissue samples were sent abroad for analysis, confirming that only one autopsy was performed and no such samples were sent overseas—a standard practice since measles is easily diagnosed.

“Anti-vaxxers from New Zealand came to be with him here,” Ekeroma noted, underscoring Kennedy’s influence in the region.

Meanwhile, blood samples from living patients were sent to Australia and New Zealand, where public health agencies confirmed that the strain detected matched the measles variant circulating in New Zealand at the time.

Kennedy, pushing back against accusations of spreading anti-vaccine sentiment, maintained that his 2019 trip had nothing to do with vaccines.

“I went there to introduce a medical informatics system that would digitalize records in Samoa and make health delivery much more efficient,” he told senators.

Despite his claims, health officials in Samoa continue to view his visit as a damaging moment in the country’s fight against vaccine hesitancy, as the measles outbreak claimed dozens of lives before it was eventually contained.

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