Wellington, New Zealand – Top Health Officer of Samoa on Monday condemned Robert F. Kennedy Junior made during his dialect to become the US Health Secretary, dismissed his claim that some people who died in the 2019 measles epidemic of the country are T disease.
“We don’t know what he was killing them,” Kennedy said during the hearing of the US Senate last week whether he should oversee the US Health and Human Services Department, suggesting that the cause of 83 deaths – most of the children The age was 5 – unclear at the age of 5 years.
“This is a total construction,” Dr. General of the Director General of Samoa. Alec Acheroma told the Associated Press of Kennedy’s comments.
American senators grilled Kennedy on his 2019 Samoa visit last week, accusing him of reducing his role in the epidemic.
What happened in Samoa?
Outbreaks destroyed the nation of Pacific in 2019, killing 83 people in a population of 200,000. The rate of vaccination was historically low due to poor public health management and 2018 death of two infants, whose vaccines were incorrectly designed, fearing that MMR vaccination was unsafe before the discovery of the nature of the error.
The government suspended vaccination for 10 months before the outbreak – when Kennedy visited the period. According to the 2021 blog post by Kennedy, his trip was organized by Samoan Anti-Vachin Influenceer.
On Wednesday, Kennedy denied that his visit had promoted the anti-Vaxin spirit. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to the remarks request on Monday.
“New Zealand’s anti-Vaxxx accompanied him to him,” said Acheroma. “This is how I know that his effect can be far -reaching.”
What did Kennedy say about deaths?
Kennedy told Ron Widen, the senator of Oregon Democrat, “When the tissue samples were sent to New Zealand, most of them did not have measles,” Kennedy told Oregon Democrat’s Senator Ron Widen.
A medical doctor, who does a doctorate in health, said that the claim was a “huge refutation” of the fact that doctors from many countries traveled to Samoa to treat measles patients.
Samon Adhikari was not the head of health during the outbreak, but confirmed the important details with his predecessor, he said. Ekroma said that only one body was tested and no post mortem tissue samples were sent abroad, which was not uncommon because measles is a simple disease to diagnose.
Blood samples from living patients were sent to Australia and New Zealand, where the public health agency said on Monday that the test had confirmed the same tension in New Zealand at that time.
Why did Kennedy travel to Samoa?
Kennedy said on Wednesday, “I went there – have nothing to do with the vaccine.” “I went there to start a medical information science system that would digitize records in Samoa and make health distribution more efficient.”
Acheroma dismissed the claim that was mentioned by the anti-vaccine advocates who posed for photographs with Kennedy during their journey. Later one wrote on the blog of Kennedy’s erstwhile non -profit, children’s health protection – which has stopped MMR vaccine as unsafe – that during outbreak they got advice from people gathered by Kennedy, who encouraged alternative remedies While doing them, they were supplying to Samoa families.
In the same blog post, Kennedy recalled the meeting with the then Prime Minister of Samoa, who said “was eager to measure health results after ‘natural experiment’ created by national relief from vaccines.”
At the end of 2019, Kennedy wrote to the leader, saying that deaths could be caused by a measles vaccine – the statement he repeated in written responses to the senators’ questions after hearing. He urged the Samoa leader to contact a particular laboratory to examine the source of outbreak.
Was there any dominance in Kennedy’s visit?
Kennedy said in his written reactions, “My words had nothing with the vaccine uttake or 2019 epidemic in Samoa.”
But Kennedy instigated anti-vaccine contacts in Samoa, said Ekroma, and the epidemic was fuel by disintegration in the island nation and social media posts abroad.
Moelagi Lilani Jackson, a Samoan nurse working on the vaccination campaign, told AP in 2023 that anti-vaccine campaigners got “loud” after Kennedy’s visit.
“I think he felt that he had the support of Kennedy,” he said.
However, Ekroma said that Kennedy’s overtreters were ignored by the leaders of the country. A vaccination campaign and measles vaccine launched in 2019 are now mandatory for Samoa children.
Will Kennedy’s appointment affect Prashant?
If Kennedy is confirmed as a top US health officer this week, it would “a danger to us, a threat to us,” said Ekroma. The official said Kennedy would control American funding for vaccination initiative and make cheap vaccines difficult for small countries such as Samoa.
“If he is going to be appointed, we will really have to discuss around Prashant that we are going to try to neutralize his impact in this field.”