They were coming to study what had happened when Samoa stopped vaccinating.
When a public official's sworn words diverge from the documentary record, the gap between testimony and truth becomes its own kind of event. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now serving as U.S. health secretary, told the Senate his 2019 visit to Samoa was about modernizing health records — nothing more. Emails obtained by the Guardian suggest his colleague framed the trip as a mission to study what happens to a population when vaccination stops, months before a measles outbreak killed 83 people, most of them young children. The distance between what was said under oath and what was written in private now sits at the center of a question Congress has not yet resolved.
- Emails from Kennedy's own colleague describe the Samoa trip as a deliberate mission to study vaccination discontinuity — directly contradicting Kennedy's repeated Senate testimony that vaccines had nothing to do with the visit.
- The stakes are not abstract: three months after Kennedy's team departed, a measles outbreak killed 83 people in Samoa, most of them children under five, in a country where vaccination rates had already collapsed.
- Samoan officials have said Kennedy's presence lent credibility to anti-vaccine voices on the island, suggesting the visit may have deepened the very conditions that made the outbreak possible.
- Democratic senators and a House member have publicly accused Kennedy of lying to Congress, while Republicans have declined to challenge his testimony despite the documented contradictions.
- The State Department continues releasing heavily redacted emails through an open records lawsuit, leaving the full picture incomplete — and Kennedy's office has not responded to requests for comment.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate, more than once and with emphasis, that his 2019 trip to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. His stated purpose was to introduce a medical informatics system and help digitalize the island nation's health records. When senators pressed him on the point across two days of testimony, his answer did not change.
Emails obtained by the Guardian complicate that account significantly. Months before Kennedy arrived, his colleague Dr. Michael Graven — chief information officer at Kennedy's anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense — wrote to Samoan officials describing the upcoming visit as a 'mission.' In a follow-up message, Graven explained the work would involve evaluating health outcomes tied to Samoa's recent pause in vaccinations. Kennedy, Graven noted, had personally asked him to join the effort.
That vaccination pause had a grim origin. In 2018, two infants died after receiving an improperly prepared MMR vaccine, prompting Samoa to halt all vaccinations for ten months. For Kennedy's organization, the pause represented what Graven called a natural experiment — a rare opportunity to study a population that had stopped vaccinating. Kennedy had long called for exactly this kind of comparative research.
When Kennedy arrived in late May 2019 with his wife and Graven, vaccinations had technically resumed but uptake remained dangerously low. A State Department employee on the island later wrote that the two men left after only a few days — far short of the weeks Graven had said they would need — and had 'fallen far short of their goal to influence Samoan government vaccination policy.'
Three months later, measles swept through Samoa, killing 83 people, most of them children under five. Samoan officials said Kennedy's visit had strengthened the hand of anti-vaccine activists already operating on the island. The outbreak became one of the most scrutinized chapters of Kennedy's record before his appointment as health secretary.
The emails also contradict a 2021 blog post in which Kennedy suggested it was Samoan officials who had sought to measure outcomes from the vaccination pause — when the documentary record shows it was Kennedy's team proposing the study. Two Democratic senators and a House member have said the evidence demonstrates Kennedy lied to Congress. Republicans have not challenged his testimony. Many of the relevant emails remain heavily redacted, and Kennedy's office has not responded to questions. The full account of what happened in Samoa — and what was said about it under oath — remains, for now, unresolved.
Robert F Kennedy Jr told the Senate last year that his 2019 trip to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. He said it repeatedly, with emphasis. He went there, he testified, to introduce a medical informatics system—a way to digitalize health records and make the island nation's healthcare delivery more efficient. When pressed by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, Kennedy was clear: "I went there, nothing to do with vaccines." When Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts asked again the next day, Kennedy said again: "My purpose in going down there had nothing to do with vaccines."
But emails obtained by the Guardian tell a different story. In March 2019, before Kennedy's arrival, his colleague Dr Michael Graven—who served as chief information officer at Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy chaired—wrote to Samoan officials describing the upcoming visit as a "mission." Two months later, in May, Graven elaborated. The mission, he explained, would involve "health informatics evaluation from medical record data from all hospitals and clinics in Samoa to evaluate outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations." Kennedy, Graven wrote, had asked him to join this work. The language was deliberate and specific: they were coming to study what had happened when Samoa stopped vaccinating.
That pause in vaccinations was itself significant. In 2018, two infants died after receiving a tainted measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that had been improperly prepared. Samoa's government halted all vaccinations for ten months—until April 2019—and vaccination rates collapsed. For Kennedy and his organization, this created something valuable: what Graven called a natural experiment, a window into what happened to a population when vaccination stopped. Kennedy had long advocated for exactly this kind of study—comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated children against unvaccinated children. Samoa's involuntary pause offered precisely that opportunity.
Kennedy arrived on May 30, 2019, with his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, and Graven. By then vaccinations had resumed, but uptake remained very low. According to a State Department employee stationed in Samoa, Antone Greubel, Kennedy and Graven left after only a few days—far shorter than the weeks Graven had said they would need to visit hospitals and clinics and collect data. In an email dated June 4, Greubel wrote that the two men "fell far short of their goal to influence Samoan government vaccination policy."
Three months after Kennedy's departure, a measles outbreak swept through Samoa. It sickened thousands of people and killed 83, most of them children under five. Samoan officials later said Kennedy's visit had bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists on the island. The outbreak became one of the most heavily criticized episodes in Kennedy's record before Donald Trump named him health secretary.
The emails from Graven contradict not just Kennedy's Senate testimony but the entire framing he has offered. In a 2021 blog post, Kennedy suggested it was Samoan officials who wanted to measure health outcomes following the vaccination pause. The emails show it was Kennedy's team proposing the study. Kennedy told the Senate the trip was about introducing a medical informatics system and a $6 million grant to digitalize health records. The emails show the informatics work was explicitly tied to analyzing what happened during the discontinuity in vaccinations—the very thing Kennedy said the trip had nothing to do with.
Two Democratic senators and a House member have said the evidence shows Kennedy lied to Congress. Senator Ron Wyden called the new findings "more proof that Robert Kennedy is a liar on a mission to take vaccines away from kids who need them." The State Department has been releasing the emails in batches since January as a result of an open records lawsuit. Many remain heavily redacted. Republicans have not challenged Kennedy's testimony despite the documented contradictions, and Kennedy's spokespeople at the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment. The question of what Kennedy actually did in Samoa, and what he told the Senate about it, remains unresolved.
Citações Notáveis
The mission involves health informatics evaluation from medical record data from all hospitals and clinics in Samoa to evaluate outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations.— Dr Michael Graven, in email to Samoan officials, May 13, 2019
I went there, nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to introduce a medical informatics system with digitalized records in Samoa and make health delivery much more efficient.— RFK Jr., Senate testimony, 2025
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter what Kennedy said about why he went to Samoa? Isn't the real issue what happened after—the outbreak?
The outbreak is the consequence. But the testimony matters because it shows a pattern of how Kennedy presents himself. He tells the Senate one story, but the documentary record shows another. That's about credibility in a position where credibility shapes policy.
But did Kennedy actually cause the outbreak? Did his visit directly lead to people not vaccinating?
That's harder to prove. What we know is that Samoan officials said his presence bolstered anti-vaccine activists. He was there studying a population that had stopped vaccinating—exactly the kind of natural experiment he'd been advocating for. Whether he caused the outbreak or simply took advantage of the conditions, the emails show his stated reason for being there wasn't his real reason.
So the lie is the problem, not the outcome?
Both. The lie matters because it's testimony to Congress. The outcome matters because 83 people died. But you can't separate them—if Kennedy had been honest about what he was studying and why, the Senate could have asked different questions about the risks of his presence there.
What does Graven's description of the "mission" actually mean? Was he planning to publish research?
The emails don't say. He talks about collecting data, doing statistical analysis, visiting all the hospitals and clinics. But he and Kennedy left after a few days. The State Department official said they fell far short of their stated goals. So either the plan changed, or it was never realistic to begin with.
And Kennedy's explanation about the medical informatics system—was that completely false?
Not completely. There may have been a grant, there may have been a system. But that wasn't the mission Graven was describing. The mission was to study vaccination outcomes during the pause. The informatics system was the vehicle, not the destination.