Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then a prominent anti-vaccine activist, preempted the 2019 visit with a letter to the Samoan prime minister requesting to study the Pacific island nation’s measles, mumps and rubella vaccines after the deaths of two children who had received them. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed the U.S. is doing “a better job than any country in the world” at curbing measles.

From the daily newsletter: assessing Kennedy’s war on immunization.

Letters show Kennedy wanted to study Samoa's use of MMR vaccine