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.