Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that a 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “ nothing to do with vaccines.” New documents obtained by The and The Guardian refute that testimony. Kennedy, then a prominent anti-vaccine activist, preempted the visit with a letter to the Samoan prime minister requesting to study the Pacific island nation’s measles, mumps and rubella vaccines after the deaths of two children who had received them. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
The letter raises questions about how truthful Kennedy was in testimony before Congress. During an arduous confirmation process where he needed the support of some skeptical Republican lawmakers to advance, Kennedy also pledged to maintain vaccine policies that, once in office, he moved to change. The Department of Health and Human Services said in response to questions from the AP that the Samoa visit “was unrelated to vaccines.” “Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory,” the department said in a written statement.
Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence regardless of whether a person is under oath, though it is rarely prosecuted. HHS did not make Kennedy available for an interview.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Samoan prime minister’s office and the former prime minister who corresponded with Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment. Kennedy’s Samoa visit has become one of the most contentious events in his career.
At the time, he was leading a nonprofit known for its anti-vaccine activism. Critics said the visit emboldened anti-vaccine activists in Samoa, which later experienced the measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children under 5. Lawyers with expertise in Senate procedure said that if lawmakers choose, they could use Kennedy’s statements as grounds for hearings, an impeachment inquiry or creating other obstacles for him.
But such action is unlikely under the current Republican-led Congress, which is aligned with President Donald Trump's administration. Under repeated questioning, Kennedy insisted vaccines weren’t the reason for the trip At the start of Trump’s second term, Kennedy — a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before entering politics — faced an uphill battle as he sought to become the nation’s health secretary. Lawmakers from both parties had criticized his anti-vaccine rhetoric, and during his confirmation hearings, he tried to assure them that he supported childhood vaccination.
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