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3 hours ago
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Samoa’s prime minister, Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa, has criticised Robert F Kennedy Jr’s views and the spread of vaccine misinformation related to the deadly 2019 measles outbreak that claimed the lives of at least 83 people, mostly babies in her country.
It comes as Kennedy, who is president Donald Trump’s pick to lead the top US health agency, faced attacks in Senate confirmation hearings this week with Democratic lawmakers accusing him of covering up his anti-vaccine views.
Kennedy, who denies being anti-vaccine, visited Samoa in 2019, four months before the measles outbreak was declared. Although it was not an official visit, he met with government representatives and anti-vaccine influencers, in what health advocates and experts claim was a disinformation campaign that stoked distrust in vaccines.
“If he is the messenger for anti-vaxxers, as a leader, I do not agree with him,” Fiame told the Guardian in her first public comments on Kennedy after the first day of his confirmation hearings in the US.
Fiame said she was surprised by his nomination given his anti-vaccination rhetoric. She added that she refused to believe that Kennedy’s and Trump’s sentiments reflect those held by most Americans.
The 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa was caused by a dangerous drop in vaccination rates that stemmed from a medical vaccination error in 2018 and was fuelled by anti-vaccination sentiment. The previous Samoan government’s public health mismanagement also contributed to the crisis.
By October 2019, vaccination rates had fallen to 31% – down from 84% four years previously, according to WHO data. The decline began after a 2018 medical error, where two infants died due to nurses incorrectly administering vaccines mixed with an expired muscle relaxant. Though the error was unrelated to vaccine safety, anti-vaccine activists falsely blamed the MMR vaccine for the deaths.
As a result, when measles entered Samoa in late 2019, the low immunity levels allowed the disease to spread rapidly, leading to at least 83 deaths and over 5,700 cases, mostly among babies and young children.
“The facts remain that the two babies who died [in 2018] were through human error of the nurses. All the different actors, especially anti-vax people, got on board and suggested that the vaccination was the cause, which is complete rubbish,” Fiame said.
“We have a track record prior to that of high rates of vaccination for our children, and they were safe. The facts speak for themselves,” Fiame told the Guardian. “It was unvaccinated children who died.”
While Kennedy denies his visit to Samoa in 2019 worsened the outbreak, health officials argue that his anti-vaccine rhetoric fuelled public fear at the height of vaccine hesitancy in Samoa.
“His visit did not help our cause as we were already dealing with misinformation and hesitancy from the two deaths,” said Luana Tui, a Samoan community health worker who was part of the vaccination drive during the measles pandemic.
