In 2018, improperly prepared vaccines — after nurses mixed doses with muscle relaxants instead of water — led to the deaths of two Samoan children. The incident sparked widespread mistrust in the vaccine program, including from Samoa’s prime minister, who suspended MMR immunizations altogether.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green had a scathing rebuttal to claims made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s during his confirmation hearing Wednesday regarding a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa. “He’s a liar, and it’s bulls--t,

RFK Jr. and Governor Ron Wyden of Oregon discuss the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak, and RFK Jr.'s role in the outbreak.

It was a spasm of tragedy on a remote Pacific island that only a few months later was overshadowed by a pandemic. But to Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii, the measles outbreak on neighboring Samoa that killed 83 people,