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Protect Our Care Also Held a Day of Action With a Digital Ad Campaign, Mobile Billboard, and Distribution of Report on RFK Jr.’s Deadly Visit to Samoa

Watch Wednesday’s press conference here.

Yesterday, Hawaii Governor Josh Green held a press conference with Representatives Ami Bera, Kim Schrier, Lauren Underwood, and Herb Conaway to raise awareness about RFK Jr.’s role in a devastating measles outbreak in Samoa and warn of the danger he poses if confirmed as HHS secretary. Throughout the week, Governor Green has been meeting with senators to discuss his firsthand experience in Samoa. Protect Our Care’s “Stop RFK War Room” also held a day of action featuring digital ad campaign, a mobile billboard circling Capitol Hill, distribution of a report on RFK Jr.’s deadly visit to Samoa. 

In 2019, RFK Jr. visited the island nation of Samoa to spread anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, which led to the deaths of 83 people, primarily infants and children. To this day, he refuses to take responsibility and continues to oppose lifesaving vaccines, saying he “does not believe that infectious disease is an enormous threat to human health.” Governor Green visited Samoa in 2019 to help vaccinate over 37,000 people and saw firsthand how RFK Jr.’s vaccine misinformation contributed to the deaths, which he described in detail in a New York Times opinion piece this week. Combined with his complete lack of experience in management, RFK Jr. is completely unfit to lead HHS.

HEADLINES

HuffPost: Hawaii Gov: RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Misinformation Left Dozens Of Kids Dead In Samoa.

• “This is an absolute life-or-death decision that the Senate … and frankly the incoming president is poised to make over our future,” Green, who is also a physician, said at a Capitol Hill press conference with other lawmakers who are medical professionals.
• “This would not have been necessary, if not for an interloper named Robert F. Kennedy,” Green said Wednesday. “He stopped a week after we did the vaccination program.”

Washington Post: Advocates Hold ‘Day of Action’ on Capitol Hill to Protest RFK Jr.

• Protect Our Care, a Democrat-aligned advocacy group, took new steps Wednesday to highlight public health leaders’ concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom President-elect Donald Trump has selected to serve as the nation’s top health official. The group deployed a mobile billboard, circling Capitol Hill, that plays a video that highlights Kennedy’s record of questioning vaccines and warns of the risks to Americans if he is confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D), a physician who responded to Samoa’s measles outbreak, is also on Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators and share his story of caring for measles-afflicted children. Green is scheduled Wednesday to deliver remarks castigating Kennedy, joined by Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Washington), a fellow physician, and other congressional Democrats with health-care backgrounds.

Fox News: Physician Governor Urges Capitol Hill to Block RFK Jr.’s Confirmation: ‘Our Children’s Lives Depend on It.’

• “As the only physician governor, I need to explain what are good picks and what maybe aren’t so good picks for the cabinet,” Green said in a video ahead of his planned trip to Washington, noting that his lobbying against Kennedy is not anything personal or politically motivated. “[RFK Jr’s] appointment to be the head of Health and Human Services is not consistent with safety for our children,” he said. 
• “Too much depends on our commitment to truth and the lifesaving power of vaccines to entrust Mr. Kennedy with the direction of these programs. Our children’s lives depend on it,” Green wrote.

Politico: Democratic Doctors in the House Condemn RFK Jr., Plan New Caucus. 

• The lawmakers said Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism was “beyond irresponsible” and “should disqualify” him to lead HHS in a press conference on Wednesday, suggesting a Kennedy confirmation would cause more to die of preventable diseases, referencing Kennedy longstanding efforts to discourage vaccination. Schrier joined Reps. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.) and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, all physicians, as well as Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), a registered nurse, to publicly oppose Kennedy’s confirmation.

Roll Call: Hawaii Governor Sounds Alarm Over RFK Jr.’s Stance on Vaccines.

• “I know there are friends and family saying, hey, maybe we’ll finally break through on Big Pharma and this and that,” Green said. “It won’t even matter if we have massive outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, polio and meningitis.”
• Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., a pediatrician who joined Green at a news conference on Kennedy along with other Democratic members who have worked as health care providers, said she “could not agree more” about the importance of diet and exercise. But she added that that shouldn’t take away from the importance of getting immunized. “Sowing this doubt in the minds of parents and the citizens of this country should disqualify Robert Kennedy Jr. from this job,” she said. 

Kent Reporter: Schrier Speaks in Support of Vaccines and Against RFK Jr.

• “Sowing needless doubt in the minds of parents and the citizens of this country should disqualify Robert Kennedy Jr. from this job. Make no mistake: stoking vaccine hesitancy will lead to deaths. We are here to let the incoming Trump Administration and the Senate know that we believe RFK Jr. is not only unqualified for this role but would be dangerous to the nation and to the rest of the world.”

The Hill: Hawaii Governor: RFK Jr. ‘Could Actually Damage the Health of Our Nation Terribly’

• Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) warned that President-elect Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services could “damage” the nation’s health.
• The Hawaiian governor, who is a doctor, said Kennedy in Samoa promoted “misinformation” and “torpedoed” the vaccination program. Afterward, measles cases increased by 5,000, which totaled 83 deaths, mostly children, Green said.

NBC News: More Than 15,000 Doctors Sign Letter Urging Senate to Reject RFK Jr. As Health Secretary

• The liberal nonprofit group Protect Our Care, which advocates to preserve the Affordable Care Act, also launched a campaign this week with a report and digital ads highlighting Kennedy’s 2019 trip to Samoa before a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, most of them children. This week, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a physician, wrote in The New York Times that vaccine misinformation spread by Kennedy played a role in Samoa’s outbreak and warned that appointing him at the Department of Health and Human Services would jeopardize public health.
• Green appeared alongside members of Congress with backgrounds in public health Wednesday at a news conference opposing Kennedy organized by 314 Action, a progressive political action committee dedicated to electing scientists.  

Politico: Second Sales Pitch

• House Democrats and one governor are trying to pressure their Senate colleagues to vote against Kennedy, with some suggesting the confirmation vote is a “life-or-death decision.”
• That’s how Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a doctor, has put it to lawmakers this week in an effort to derail a Kennedy nomination. On Wednesday, Green joined House Democrats who are also clinicians to plead with senators — and Trump himself — to abandon his choice of Kennedy.

Protect Our Care Launches Mobile Billboard on Capitol Hill and Delivers Report to All 100 U.S. Senators 

Watch the Mobile Billboard Here.

Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, January 8, Protect Our Care is launching a mobile billboard that will circle the Capitol from 8 AM to 4 PM slamming Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s visit to Samoa in 2019, where his anti-vaccination conspiracy theories led to deadly consequences. The video accompanying the mobile billboard will also be used in a digital advertising campaign in key states of Republican Senators, including those who serve on key committees considering his nomination and those who have expressed concern regarding his opposition to vaccines.

Protect Our Care will also distribute its report on RFK Jr.’s deadly visit to Samoa to all 100 Senate offices on Capitol Hill. Activists will be fanning out across Capitol Hill to distribute the report and buttonhole Senators and staff to highlight the deadly consequences of putting RFK Jr. in charge of American health care.

The report, digital ad campaign and mobile billboard come as Hawaii Governor Josh Green meets with senators to raise awareness of RFK Jr.’s role in a devastating measles outbreak in Samoa. In 2019, Governor Green, a physician and at the time Hawaii’s Lt. Governor, visited Samoa in the aftermath to help vaccinate over 37,000 people. He saw firsthand how RFK Jr.’s vaccine misinformation contributed to the deaths of 83 people, mostly children, which he described in detail in a New York Times opinion piece this week.

Protect Our Care is calling on senators to oppose RFK Jr.’s nomination as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This report and mobile billboard are part of Protect Our Care’s “Stop RFK War Room” campaign to educate people on why RFK Jr. is unfit for the job and the insurmountable damage he could do if confirmed.

“RFK Jr.’s deadly visit to Samoa is a preview of what would come if he takes the reins of America’s public health care system,” said Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse. “Dangerous conspiracy theories have devastating consequences. RFK Jr. has a long track record of peddling costly lies – he believes no vaccine is safe or effective and has pledged to stop funding research for treatments and cures to deadly diseases. His past attacks on public health and continued refusal to accept responsibility for the lives lost in Samoa are among the many reasons why RFK Jr. is deeply unqualified and unfit to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.”

Mobile Billboard/Digital Ad Script:

Narrator: Robert F Kennedy Jr. is no health care leader. He’s a threat to your family’s health. RFK Jr. spreads deadly lies about vaccines, calling them unsafe and ineffective. His conspiracy theories fueled a measles outbreak in Samoa, killing 83 people, mostly babies and toddlers.

CNN Clip: RFK went and rallied that country against vaccinations. It resulted in the deaths of 83 innocent children. 

Narrator: Now he’s been nominated to oversee America’s health care system – Medicare, Medicaid, vaccines, research. The health of every American is at stake. 

RFK Jr.: There’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective. 

Narrator: He’d defund life-saving research and drug development, gut the FDA, let diseases like polio and measles resurge. This isn’t leadership. It’s a death sentence. Tell your Senators: reject RFK Jr. He’s not just unfit, he’s dangerous.

In the wake of Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), he’s been on a whirlwind media tour attempting to convince the public that he’s up for the job. But Kennedy’s empty resumé makes it clear that he is utterly unqualified to run HHS. He has no medical training or expertise, no legitimate background in health care or public health and he lacks any notable organizational leadership or managerial experience. Furthermore, he’s managed fewer people than the average Walmart customer service manager. As a man who “do[es] not believe that infectious disease is an enormous threat to human health” and holds blatantly racist and antisemitic views on public health, RFK Jr. has absolutely no place in the halls of power – let alone at the helm of the country’s largest civilian agency employing over 80,000 employees and regulating a sector accounting for nearly a fifth of the national economy.

Kennedy Is Inexperienced and Completely Unqualified To Lead The Nation’s Largest Civilian Agency. Kennedy is utterly unqualified for the role of HHS Secretary. He has no relevant experience for this position, has never worked in government, and has never directed a large organization of any kind – not to mention the fact that Kennedy has no medical expertise. He is not a doctor, he does not have a medical degree or even a substantial amount of medical-related coursework under his belt. His undergraduate degree focused on American history and literature, and his postgraduate studies were dedicated to legal studies. His legal work experience focused on environmental law, not public health law. Kenndy only began wading into public health when he began his conspiratorial anti-vaccine advocacy in the early 2000s.

Kennedy’s Only Organizational Leadership Experience Involved Fewer Than 10 Staff Members. Kennedy has no analogous leadership experience and is wholly unprepared to lead the nation’s largest civilian agency. He has less than a decade of experience in his only leadership role, which is leading the anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense. The group lists fewer than ten staff members – compared to more than 80,000 employees of HHS across a diverse array of sub-agencies and departments. HHS oversees health care for the 163 million Americans enrolled in ACA Marketplace plans, Basic Health plans, Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP – just under half of the U.S. population. The agency regulates the health care sector, which accounts for more than 17 percent of the U.S. economy. If Kennedy gets confirmed, American lives will be at risk. 

Kennedy’s Top Priority? Pausing All Research On Drug Development And Gutting The FDA. At a June 2024 town hall meeting Kennedy said, “I’m going to go to NIH my first week and I’m going to call all the division heads and I’m going to call all the bureau chiefs and I’m going to say, we’re going to give drug development and infectious disease a break. A little break, a little bit of a break for about eight years.” Kennedy has made the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the world’s top medical research centers, a top target. These remarks echo what he told an anti-vaccine conference in November 2023, when he said, “I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all. Thank you for [your] public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” Kennedy claims to have a list of 600 employees of the NIH that he plans to fire on day one. He wants to divert NIH funding away from drug research by devoting “half of research budgets” towards “alternative and holistic approaches to health.” Kennedy has also claimed that he will go after medical journals and redirect funding away from epidemiology, a practice that seeks to prevent and control the spread of disease. 

Kennedy, Who “Do[es] Not Believe That Infectious Disease Is An Enormous Threat To Human Health,” Has Vowed To Defund The National Institutes of Health and Infectious Disease Research. At a 2023 roundtable, Kennedy said he does “not believe that infectious disease is an enormous threat to human health.” He claimed that “medical research on these diseases and vaccine research has created some of the worst plagues in our history” and baselessly asserted that vaccine research was responsible for the creation of HIV, the Spanish flu, Lyme, and RSV. 

Just like the NIH, Kenndy has the FDA in his crosshairs. Kennedy has threatened to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci and claimed that he would eliminate “entire departments” and hundreds of employees at the FDA. During an event in October 2024, Kennedy also said he would fire every nutritional scientist at the FDA “on day 1,” claiming he would otherwise “ship them to a new HHS headquarters in Guam” if unable to fire them. He also wants to end fees for big pharmaceutical companies to send drugs to the FDA for approval – even though those fees pay for 75 percent of the agency’s budget. Before the 2024 election, Kennedy posted on social media, “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.” Likewise, nominated HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill has been critical of the FDA, once reportedly calling for the agency to approve drugs based only on safety concerns and to later determine their efficacy.

Kennedy’s Silence on Medicare, Medicaid, and The ACA Demonstrates His Lack of Fitness To Oversee Health Care For Over 160 Million Americans. Despite being nominated to run HHS, Kennedy has failed to take any position on America’s largest health care institutions: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). HHS oversees health care for the 163 million Americans enrolled in ACA Marketplace plans, Basic Health plans, Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP, or just under half of the U.S. population. 

Kennedy’s Blatantly Racist and Antisemitic Views on Public Health Have No Place Leading HHS. Kennedy has a long history of racism and antisemitism. He has frequently met with and promoted antisemites ranging from disgraced musicians like rapper Ice Cube to fringe online broadcasters and virulent antisemites. At a July 2023 dinner, Kennedy proposed that the COVID-19 virus may have been ethnically targeted to spare Jewish and Chinese people: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” After the speech went viral, neo-Nazis, holocaust deniers, and antisemites celebrated Kennedy’s conspiracy theory as “100% correct.” In November 2024, new reporting revealed that Kennedy embraced the possibility that the government manufactured the COVID-19 “plandemic,” declaring that the public health response was part of an “agenda that will enslave the entire human race.” Kennedy has also specifically targeted his anti-vaccine dogma at Black Americans. He pushed false claims about Black Americans supposedly being “particularly vulnerable to vaccine injuries including autism” during a 2017 measles outbreak devastating Minnesota’s Somali-American community. In a 2020 interview, Kennedy also asserted without evidence that “People with African blood react differently to vaccines than people with Caucasian blood. They’re much more sensitive.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, he also called the COVID-19 vaccine “a crime against humanity” and falsely claimed that it is the “deadliest vaccine ever made,” releasing a film promoting disproven claims about the dangers of vaccines and explicitly warning Black communities of “sinister” vaccination campaigns.

Brain Worms, Animal Carcasses, and Extramarital Affairs: Kennedy Is Unstable and Unfit to Hold Office. Kennedy has a long and well-documented history of erratic and bizarre behavior. In May 2024, Kennedy disclosed that in 2010 doctors found a dead parasitic worm in his brain, leading to brain fog and memory problems. In August 2024, Kennedy admitted to illegally nabbing roadkill, moving a bear cub’s carcass that was hit by a car in upstate New York to Central Park, and staging a bicycle accident. Federal law enforcement is also currently investigating RFK Jr. for cutting off the head of a dead whale and taking it home 20 years ago. Kennedy has a known history of extramarital affairs as well; this year alone, news broke of a sexting scandal with a reporter and four women came forward claiming to have been romantically involved with Kennedy.