Project
Tragedy in Paradise
Experts show what happens when vaccination misinformation spreads.
Part three of Tragedy in Paradise, an Atlanta News First investigation shedding light on potential consequences of declining vaccination rates.
SAMOA — Thirty-three days after two Samoan children died in 2019 from a deadly mix of the MMR vaccine and muscle relaxant, an organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the future secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — paid Facebook to post multiple ads sowing doubt about the vaccines.
One ad, funded by Children’s Health Defense, claimed measles vaccines were linked to chronic illnesses and autism, claims widely debunked by scientific research.
About a year later, a measles outbreak ravaged the island nation. More than 5,700 were infected. Eighty-three people died, most of them children.
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The organization’s ads — before, during and after the outbreak — reached up to 110,000 people on Facebook and were specifically targeted to female users, according to research conducted by George Washington University shared exclusively with Atlanta News First Investigates. Most of the ads cost between $100 and $499 each.
“From my standpoint, [Kennedy] should rot in hell for this because he knew he was taking advantage of vulnerable people,” said Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who led a medical response team to Samoa in 2019 to inoculate thousands of people during a mass vaccination campaign to stop the outbreak. Green was Hawaii’s lieutenant governor at the time.
About six months before the outbreak, Kennedy visited Samoa in person. At the time of his visit, Kennedy was an attorney and was active in the Children’s Defense Fund.
While on the island, he posed with Taylor Winterstein, a Samoan social media influencer well-known for her anti-vaxxer messaging in Australia.
Public health officials say social media posts like Winterstein’s validate anti-vaxxers’ messages. “His presence in Samoa was significant for the anti-vaxxers to push their message through,” said Leilani Jackson, a Samoan nurse who responded to the outbreak.
Jackson has spent her career helping small South Pacific island nations, like Samoa, get their citizens vaccinated against preventable diseases. When the measles outbreak struck in Samoa in 2019, her darkest fear turned into reality. “Utter disbelief,” Jackson said, with tears in her eyes. “Just pure shock and sadness.”
According to a George Washington University study, the majority of Facebook ads that spread vaccine misinformation before Samoa’s outbreak were funded by two organizations run by well-known anti-vaccination activists. One of them was the organization Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense.
Kennedy says his 2019 trip was organized by Edwin Tamasese, a long-time vaccine skeptic on the island. Samoan authorities arrested Tamasese for allegedly trying to convince people not to get the MMR vaccine during the country’s mass vaccination campaign.
“I’ll be here to mop up your mess. Enjoy your killing spree,” said Tamasese, according to Samoan government officials.
Kennedy called Tamasese a “medical freedom hero” in an op-ed posted on Children’s Health Defense’s website after his charges were later dismissed.
During the outbreak, Kennedy continued to spread doubt about the MMR vaccine. In a Nov. 19, 2019, letter to Samoa’s prime minister, Kennedy claimed the MMR vaccines were potentially killing people. “It is a regrettable possibility that these children are casualties of the [MMR] vaccine,” wrote Kennedy.
The letter was sent four days after the Samoan government issued a state of emergency. Sixteen people had already died.
“I thought he was such a selfish man,” said Jackson in response to Kennedy’s letter, “creating such confusion and doubt in Samoan minds about getting vaccinated.”
