The appointment of Robert F Kennedy Jr as the head of the United States health system is an atrocity. He played a hand in pushing his anti-vaccination agenda in Samoa during a time when the Ministry of Health was urging parents to get children vaccinated for measles.

Then he dares to lie through his teeth in a Senate hearing in the US. "When tissue samples were sent to New Zealand, most of those people did not have measles, we do not know what was killing them," he said.

These are the type of people who will be in charge of the nation deemed as one of the superpowers and whose decision impacts the world over. What more can expected from US President Donald Trump? He has already severed ties with the rest of the world by pulling the plug on the Paris Agreement, funding the World Health Organisation and then stopping all foreign aid.

Trump has gone one step better, he is naming an anti-vaxxer to lead the charge of the nation’s health system. Why should this bother Samoa? Kennedy had a hand in promoting his anti-vaccination views in Samoa and his being at the helm of the US health system means less and less support for vaccination campaigns the world over.

Kennedy made the trip to Samoa in June 2019 and not as an official of the US government. He participated in the Independence Day celebrations and was treated like a VIP because of his linkage to former US President John F Kennedy.

Three months later in September 2019, the measles outbreak began. As of 6 January 2020, over 5,700 cases of measles and 83 deaths had been reported. The cause of the outbreak was decreased vaccination rates among newborns, from 74 per cent in 2017 to 31–34 per cent in 2018.

When Kennedy visited in June 2019, the nation was on the brink of crisis. The government had suspended measles vaccinations the year before after an improperly prepared vaccine killed two babies. Though the vaccinations resumed months later, many parents weren’t convinced that the shots were safe, leaving thousands of their smallest children unprotected against a highly contagious disease as it was resurging across the globe.

With fewer than a third of Samoa’s babies vaccinated, experts and officials feared for the Pacific Island nation. But Kennedy saw an opportunity.

The NBC reported that Kennedy, then chairman of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine nonprofit, later recounted online that Samoan “government officials, including the Prime Minister, were curious to measure health outcomes following the ‘natural experiment’ created by the respite from vaccines.” Wherever the idea originated, Kennedy was quick to offer a way to do it.

According to NBC, Kennedy visited Samoa in 2019, to pitch the prime minister and Ministry of Health on an information system that would track the impact of medical interventions, including vaccines, on the nation’s 200,000 citizens.

It has been found that Kennedy stayed connected to the island, allegedly writing to the then-prime minister to raise concerns about the vaccine and providing medical guidance to a local anti-vaccine activist who posted false claims about the vaccination campaign and promoted unproven alternative cures.

Our health boss has said it the best. Aiono Dr Alec Ekeroma has summed it up for the rest of the world when he said that having an anti-vaxxer at the top of the United States health system was not going to be good for anyone.

Kennedy has blood on his hands and then he tries to wash it off by lying that the deaths in Samoa were not because of the virus. Kennedy needs to face the families who lost their children to measles.

Yes, vaccination was at an all-time low, but Kennedy used this to promote his anti-vaccination agenda. Vaccinations have saved countless lives the world over and to sway people, especially children to a path that leads to possible death is criminal.