It was the cramps of the tragedy on the remote Pacific island that only a few months later was overshadowed by a global pandemic. But for the government of Josh Green of Hawaii, the outbreak of measles on the neighboring Samoa, which killed 83 people, mostly infants and children, was prevented by the disaster, which President Trump now wants to direct American health policy.
In December 2019 at that time Green, an emergency physician and governor of a democratic lieutenant in Hawaii, rounded the medical team and thousands of vaccines and flew to Samoa to help. Last month, he flew to Washington in order to alert the legislators from both sides regarding the role of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nomination of Mr. Trump for the Minister of Health and Human Services and long -term skeptic vaccines, played in the outbreak of Samoa.
Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation hearing is on Wednesday and Thursday before two Senate Committees, which will then vote on whether his nominations are progressing to the full Senate.
Democrats are attempt Mr. Kennedy’s connection with the outbreak of itself to build the opposition to its nomination. Dr. Green recently appeared in advertising Liberal Bar Association, 314 Action, said: “RFK Jr. The disinformation has expanded so much that the country stopped vaccinating, and this caused the tragic and fatal spread of measles. ”
In an interview on Monday Dr. Green said that on the basis of his conversations, if the vote of the entire Senate were admitted anonymously: “RFK Jr. would be defeated 70-30 or worse. “At the same time, he said,” The political climate has all under great pressure to go with the president or be marked as disloyal. “
Mr. Kennedy’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. In the past, Samoa’s Spallbreak accused the “Indian Vaccine against MMR”, referring to measles, mumps and a rubella vaccine.
Dr. Green, 54, arrived at Hawaii in 2000 as a young doctor with the National Health Service Corps choir and was often the only doctor serving small rural communities on the Hawaiian Great Island. After being elected to the State Legislative Corps in 2012, he took care of patients on weekends. After being elected by the governor in 2022, he was banned from an external job, but he says that he voluntarily offers health care to unchanged veterans and other necessary people as a practicing “street medicine”.
Samoa’s outbreak had its roots in a tragic error. In 2018, nurses prepare vaccines against MMR mixed doses with muscle relaxant instead of water. The spoiled shots caused the death of two infants and fears about parents from the safety of vaccines.
Vaccination skeptics often incorrectly associate child vaccines with autism and, after the incident, Prime Minister Samoa, whose grandson has autism, stopped the island’s vaccination program.
As a result of death and ban, in 2018, the MMR in 2018 received less than one third of the Vaccine Samoa, according to up to 90 percent in 2013, according to World Health Organization. Infections began to grow.
Children’s Health Protection – Group led by Mr. Kennedy that in 2022 was For some time forbidden from Facebook and Instagram For what the platforms were saying, it was the spread of medical misinformation – published reports of the Prime Minister’s decision to stop the vaccine on its website.
Mr. Kennedy and his friend del Bigtree, who is also skeptical about vaccines, have great international online consequences and used the death of two children to underline their message about the daughters of vaccines. Mr. Bigtree later worked as the head of the communication for the presidential campaign of Mr. Kennedy.
As an American with a famous name and a powerful network that intensified parents’ concerns in Samoa, Mr. Kennedy “preyed people who were vulnerable,” Green.
In June 2019, Mr. Kennedy and his wife, Ciel Hines, traveled at the invitation of the Prime Minister, who treated the couple as a visit to the royal rank. “My husband wants to move,” Mrs. Hines told journalists during the journey.
During his visit, Mr. Kennedy posed in a photo with Edwin Tamases, a coconut, whom he called “medical freedom”. Mr. Kennedy later wrote on the website for protecting the health of children that the trip was organized by Mr. Tamasese, who was arrested Months later to spread misinformation of vaccines and support of ineffective measles, such as vitamins and extract from papaya leaves.
Mr. Kennedy also said on the web that he visited Samoa, because medical officials and prime ministers “were curious about the measurement of health results after a” natural experiment “created by national rest of vaccines.” Mr. Kennedy said he offered them help in creating a tracking system.
Later he denied that he was in Samoa to push his views on vaccines. In an interview 2021 for “Shot in the Armor” a document about the hesitation of a vaccine And Pandemie Covid-19, Mr. Kennedy said the film, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, who is no relationship that “I did not go to myself for anything that would follow with this problem.”)
Measles are very contagious and by the end of 2019 the number of new infections in Samoa doubled each week. The first child died on October 13. A month later, with 16 people dead from the complications of measles, the government declared a national emergency situation and made MMR shots compulsory. Four days later, Mr. Kennedy sent a letter to Samoo to the Prime Minister, who urged the Samoan medical ministry to “determine scientifically if the focus was caused by insufficient vaccine coverage or alternatively defective vaccine”.
In early December, with More than 3,700 new cases and more than 50 dead, samoa said Minister of Communication Conspiracy theorists against vaccination “slowed us down” in an effort to vaccinate people.
Dr. Green contacted the Minister of Health Samoa Faimaloto Kika Stowers. Could the team bring to the vaccination mission? Mrs Stowers handed over her offer to the Prime Minister who, in the face of the growing number of death, “offered the closure of the country” to help the Hawaiian work team, Dr. Green in an interview.
Within 48 hours of Dr. Green provided volunteers, air travel from donors and 50,000 doses of UNICEF vaccines.
His team landed at Samoa at 5:30 in the morning 4th December and several hundred Samoans disintegrated into the landscape. Residents hung red flags or pieces of fabric outside their homes if they need a vaccine.
Dr. Green remembered a visit to the house, where the child recently died that her skin was still rinsed with a fever. “I felt the heat of the child’s body after she died in the outbreak of measles that could be prevented,” he said.
Global public health experts, including a slow response to the government and the limited access of Samoans and the limited access of Samoans to health care, contributed to the outbreak. But World health organization has directly connected Disinformation vaccine to spread.