Letters Contradict RFK Jr.'s Senate Testimony That His Samoa Trip Had "Nothing to Do With Vaccines"
Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press directly contradict Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Senate confirmation testimony that his 2019 visit to Samoa had "nothing to do with vaccines." The letters reveal that Kennedy wrote to the Samoan prime minister before the trip proposing to study the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine on the island. In the letter, Kennedy used the words "vaccine" or "vaccination" eight times and proposed that his team conduct a detailed health informatics assessment — a systematic analysis of health data — of what happened with the MMR vaccines in Samoa The Guardian.
The letter also shows Kennedy wrote that he believed the deaths of two children in Samoa after an MMR vaccine could have resulted from manufacturing issues. Those two children died in July 2018 after receiving an improperly mixed MMR vaccine. The nurses involved were criminally charged. That 2018 medical error caused a dangerous drop in vaccination rates on the island, which in turn triggered the 2019 measles outbreak that killed 83 people The Guardian; The Guardian.
Kennedy told lawmakers during two congressional confirmation hearings that his 2019 Samoa visit had "nothing to do with vaccines." He was not under oath during either hearing. Knowingly giving materially false testimony to Congress is a crime carrying a possible prison sentence, though it is rarely prosecuted The Guardian.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said Kennedy's 2019 Samoa visit was unrelated to vaccines and called claims he lied under oath or to Congress "false and defamatory." The HHS department did not respond to the Guardian's question about the contradiction between Kennedy's characterization of the trip and his letter to the Samoan prime minister. The White House did not respond to a request for comment The Guardian.
This is not the first time Kennedy's account of the Samoa trip has been challenged. In February 2026, emails surfaced showing that US embassy and UN staff at the time described the purpose of the trip in terms that differed from Kennedy's later congressional testimony The Guardian. Additional emails reported that same month further undercut his testimony The Guardian. In June 2026, an email from a former Kennedy colleague cast additional doubt on his Senate testimony The Guardian. Samoan officials have said Kennedy's 2019 trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists ahead of the measles outbreak PBS NewsHour. Samoa's prime minister has criticized Kennedy's vaccine views in the wake of the deadly outbreak The Guardian.
Kennedy was for years chair and chief legal counsel of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense. A letter supporting his nomination to lead HHS, sent to the US Senate, included the names of doctors and was meant to lend credibility to his nomination in light of his two decades of anti-vaccine activism AP News. His support for abortion access has separately made conservatives uncomfortable and threatened his bid for the top US health job AP News.
Records have also shed light on Kennedy's interactions with Scott Brown, then President Trump's ambassador to New Zealand and now a candidate for the US Senate. Kennedy met Brown days before his 2019 Samoa trip The Guardian.
During a Senate hearing, Kennedy said measles is one vaccine that people should get AP News. A top US health official has urged the public to get the measles vaccine amid the ongoing outbreak AP News. On April 22, Kennedy was asked by a senator what he was doing to reduce measles cases and improve the MMR vaccination rate FactCheck.org.
The broader context here is one of escalating documentary evidence arrayed against a sitting cabinet secretary's congressional testimony. The August 27 revelation is the most direct contradiction yet: a letter in Kennedy's own words, written before the trip, explicitly referencing vaccines eight times and proposing a study centered on the MMR vaccine. The HHS spokesperson's assertion that the trip was "unrelated to vaccines" is difficult to reconcile with a document in which Kennedy himself framed the visit's purpose around vaccine investigation.
The legal stakes, while present, are modest in practice. Kennedy was not under oath during the hearings, and prosecutions for false statements to Congress are rare. But the political and institutional stakes are more substantial. Kennedy leads the federal department responsible for vaccination policy during an active measles outbreak, and the accumulating documentary record will likely shape congressional oversight and public trust in HHS guidance on immunization.
For anyone tracking this story, the trajectory is clear: each successive disclosure has tightened the gap between Kennedy's congressional account and the contemporaneous documentary record. The HHS department's decision not to address the specific contradiction between the letter and Kennedy's testimony leaves that gap unexplained by the agency Kennedy now leads.
