Report Shows RFK Jr. Plainly Lied About Samoa Visit When Being Confirmed

[douglas9]

Newly released emails show that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. openly lied during multiple Senate confirmation hearings last year when discussing his 2019 visit to Samoa, after which a horrific measles outbreak killed dozens of young children.

Kennedy visited Samoa in June 2019, during a time of high interest in the country for anti-vaccine activists. Two babies died in 2018 in the country after they were injected with a tainted vaccine, which investigators found was not related to the vaccine itself, but the nurses’ faulty administration.

Afterward, however, the government suspended the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccination program for 10 months — the period during which Kennedy visited and met with top government officials. Tragically, later in 2019, there was a measles outbreak in Samoa that led to the deaths of 74 people, over 60 of them under 4 years old.

An email recently released by the State Department, sent by U.S. embassy official Antone Greubel in Samoa before Kennedy’s visit, asserted: “The real reason Kennedy is coming is to raise awareness about vaccinations, more specifically some of the health concerns associated with vaccinating (from his point of view).”

Gruebel’s email was in response to a message from a UNICEF representative who tipped embassy officials off about the trip. That email, from UNICEF’s Sheldon Yett, said: “We now understand that the Prime Minister has invited Robert Kennedy and his team to come to Samoa to investigate the safety of the vaccine.”

https://truthout.org/articles/report-shows-rfk-jr-plainly-lied-about-samoa-visit-when-being-confirmed/

[Goonch]

1. ;-{)......

[agingdem]

2. Insane RFK,Jr. is only one of many Epstein/Trump pals

sitting on Trump's cabinet...and I'm guessing Michael Cohen suddenly backtracking is an "I'm in the Epstein files'" red flag...

[riversedge]

4. umm... you may have a point about Michael Cohen backtracking --

We shall see. I have not seen his name being mentioned. There is so much news about the Epstein files that miss.

[JT45242]

3. Lying under oath is supposed to be perjury...

I'm sure Bondi et al will hop.right on that criminal investigation and indictment.

[hatrack]

5. Gosh, I'll bet Senator Cassidy is really "concerned" now!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. MaddowBlog-RFK Jr. peddles another dubious pitch, claims keto diet could cure schizophrenia

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t need to do fresh harm to his credibility, but he did it anyway.

RFK Jr. peddles another dubious pitch, claims keto diet could cure schizophrenia

— Charlie Davis (@charlespdavis.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T14:51:46.177Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/rfk-jr-keto-diet-cure-schizophrenia-health-secretary

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently on a national tour, touting his overhaul of federal dietary guidelines and urging Americans to “eat real food.” With this in mind, he brought his pitch to a Tennessee audience this week and proceeded to do fresh harm to whatever remains of his credibility. The New York Times reported:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted on Wednesday that the keto diet could cure schizophrenia — an unfounded claim that experts say vastly overstates preliminary research into whether the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet might help patients with the disorder. […]

‘We now know that the things that you eat are driving mental illness in this country,’ Mr. Kennedy told a crowd at the Tennessee State Capitol, adding that a doctor at Harvard had ‘cured schizophrenia using keto diets.’

.....The problem, as the Times’ report explained in detail, is that the diet “poses risks to heart health,” and RFK Jr. oversold the available evidence.,,,,,

The Times report noted, for example, that RFK Jr. “has a history of promoting ideas with little to no scientific evidence to back them up. He has rejected established evidence that H.I.V. is the cause of AIDS, pushed the idea that Covid-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews and Chinese people, and repeatedly insisted that vaccines are a possible cause of autism despite a lack of proof.”

That is, of course, a small sample from a larger list. NPR had a report along these lines in 2023, noting, “Wi-Fi causes cancer and ‘leaky brain,’ Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan. … Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings, he mused during an appearance with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Chemicals in the water supply could turn children transgender, he told right-wing Canadian psychologist and podcaster Jordan Peterson, echoing a false assertion made by serial fabulist Alex Jones.”

RFK Jr. keeps adding to this embarrassing record. A few weeks ago, he claimed that a “good mother” doesn’t “trust the experts” on matters of public health. All things considered, he appears to be the last person who should be talking about who deserves the public’s trust.