Hawaii Governor, a Doctor, Blames Kennedy for Measles Deaths in Samoa
The New York Times
Gov. Josh Green battled a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children. President Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as his health policy chief.
It was a spasm of tragedy on a remote Pacific island that only a few months later was overshadowed by a global pandemic. But to Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii, the measles outbreak on neighboring Samoa that killed 83 people, mostly babies and children, was a preventable catastrophe wrought by the man President Trump now wants to steer American health policy.
In December of 2019 Dr. Green, an emergency medical physician and Hawaii’s Democratic lieutenant governor at the time, rounded up a medical team and thousands of vaccine doses and flew to Samoa to help. Last month he flew to Washington aiming to alert lawmakers from both parties about the role Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary and a longtime vaccine skeptic, played in the Samoa outbreak.
Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation hearings are on Wednesday and Thursday before two Senate committees, which will then vote on whether his nomination advances to the full Senate.
Democrats are attempting to leverage Mr. Kennedy’s connection to the Samoa outbreak to build opposition to his nomination. Dr. Green recently appeared in an ad by a liberal advocacy group, 314 Action, saying, “R.F.K. Jr. had spread so much misinformation that the country stopped vaccinating, and that caused a tragic and fatal spread of the measles.”
In an interview on Monday, Dr. Green said that based on his conversations so far, if the full Senate vote was taken anonymously, “R.F.K. Jr. would be defeated 70-30 or worse.” At the same time, he said, “the political climate has everyone under great pressure to go with the president, or be labeled disloyal.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. In the past he has blamed Samoa’s measles outbreak on “an Indian-manufactured MMR vaccine,” referring to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
