New records have raised fresh questions about US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his 2019 visit to Samoa. The records include a letter Kennedy sent to Samoa’s prime minister before the trip. In the letter, Kennedy said he wanted his team to study the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, also known as MMR. The letter conflicts with statements Kennedy made during his Senate confirmation hearings in 2025. He told senators that his trip to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. The letter is dated January 20, 2019. Kennedy wrote it on the letterhead of Children’s Health Defense, a group he led at the time. Kennedy said his team wanted to study what had happened with Samoa’s MMR vaccine program. He used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times in the letter. He also said the deaths of two children in Samoa may have been linked to problems with vaccine lots. Kennedy proposed a detailed review of health records to study the issue. The letter adds new detail to the debate over the purpose of Kennedy’s trip. Samoa had been dealing with a serious vaccine crisis at the time. Two children died in 2018 after receiving MMR shots. Nurses later admitted that the vaccine had been mixed incorrectly. Samoa then stopped its vaccination program for about 10 months. Vaccine use fell sharply during that period. The government restarted vaccinations in April 2019. Kennedy visited the country in May and June of that year. Before the trip, Samoa’s health officials had said human error caused the deaths. They did not say that the MMR vaccine itself was responsible. Kennedy’s letter shows that he still wanted to examine the vaccine issue. Samoa’s prime minister replied to Kennedy in February 2019. He welcomed the proposed health review and said the country could benefit from the work. Another email from May 2019 adds more detail. Michael Graven, who worked with Kennedy, described the trip as a vaccine related mission. Kennedy traveled to Samoa with his wife, Cheryl Hines, and Graven. During the visit, he also met with people who had raised concerns about vaccines. Months later, Samoa faced a major measles outbreak. Thousands of people became sick. The outbreak killed 83 people, most of them young children. Health experts said low vaccination levels helped measles spread across the island. Some experts also said anti vaccine groups made efforts to control the outbreak harder. Critics later argued that Kennedy’s visit may have given more attention to people who questioned vaccines. Kennedy has rejected that claim. The Samoa trip became a major issue during Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearings in January 2025. Senator Ron Wyden asked Kennedy about the visit. Kennedy said he went to Samoa to help introduce a digital health record system. He said the trip had nothing to do with vaccines. Senator Edward Markey asked Kennedy about the same issue the next day. Kennedy again said vaccines were not the reason for his visit. Kennedy also said he had not planned to meet some of the people he spoke with during the trip. The new letter gives a different picture of his plans before he traveled to Samoa. It clearly shows that studying MMR vaccines was part of the work he proposed. However, the letter alone does not show every activity Kennedy carried out during his stay. The US Department of Health and Human Services has rejected claims that Kennedy lied. An HHS spokesperson said the Samoa visit was unrelated to vaccines and called claims based on the letters false. Kennedy was not under oath during the two Senate confirmation hearings. He was later confirmed as health secretary by a 52 to 48 vote. The new records could lead to more questions about his testimony and his work on vaccine issues. They also add to a wider debate about Kennedy’s role in US health policy and his past work with groups that questioned vaccine safety. The records now offer a clearer look at what Kennedy told Samoa’s government before his 2019 visit and how that account compares with his later statements to senators.