Overview
- The Guardian and the Associated Press reported on U.S. embassy and U.N. emails turned over by the State Department that depict Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2019 Samoa trip as driven by vaccine-safety concerns.
- Embassy records identify staffer Benjamin Harding as helping connect Kennedy’s team with Samoan officials, and an official, Antone Greubel, warned Harding to cease involvement while noting Kennedy’s stated focus on vaccinations.
- An email from UNICEF’s Sheldon Yett informed embassy staff that Samoa’s prime minister had invited Kennedy to investigate vaccine safety, according to the released correspondence.
- Kennedy told senators last year that his visit had “nothing to do with vaccines,” a claim now publicly challenged by Sen. Ron Wyden, who accuses him of lying to Congress.
- Kennedy now leads HHS and oversees U.S. immunization policy, and while the new records have intensified scrutiny, the reporting cites no formal perjury finding or announced investigation.