Newly obtained emails undermine RFK Jr.'s testimony about 2019 Samoa trip before measles outbreak

Documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings that the 2019 trip he took to Samoa before a devastating measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.” Emails sent by staffers at the U.S. Embassy and the United Nations include contemporaneous accounts suggesting Kennedy's concerns about vaccine safety motivated the visit. Samoan officials later said Kennedy’s trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists ahead of the measles outbreak, which killed dozens of people. Kennedy has since said his “purpose” for going there was not related to vaccines. Kennedy was sworn in as U.S. health secretary last February.