In early December of 2019, I referred to as Faimalotoa Kika Stowers, the well being minister of Samoa. The measles outbreak that had begun earlier that fall on her small Pacific island nation had unfold uncontrolled and develop into an epidemic that threatened to overwhelm the nation. The deep bond Hawaii shares with Samoa meant this was a shared disaster. Because the lieutenant governor of Hawaii on the time and a practising doctor, I knew we wanted to behave rapidly to avoid wasting lives.
Virtually 20 years earlier, I had arrived on Hawaii’s Massive Island as a part of the Nationwide Well being Service Corps to apply medication at a small clinic in a distant group. I realized the worth of preventative well being take care of rural, low-income sufferers, and the important indisputable fact that vaccines are probably the most efficient instruments we have now to forestall sickness and save lives, particularly these of youngsters. As a rule, protecting vaccination charges above 95 percent can shield a complete inhabitants from infectious illnesses like measles.
However when vaccination charges fall, preventable illnesses can regain a foothold and pose a brand new hazard. And that’s exactly what occurred in Samoa, after misinformation unfold by anti-vaccine activists eroded belief in vaccines and led to the 2019 outbreak. 1000’s of preventable circumstances of measles sprung up, resulting in the deaths of 83 folks, largely kids. Probably the most distinguished voices behind the anti-vaccine marketing campaign was Robert Kennedy Jr.
Vaccines and public well being vaccination applications aren’t simply medical interventions, they’re additionally ethical imperatives. They embody our dedication to saving lives, ending illness and defending the well being and well-being of future generations. If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies below President-elect Donald Trump and serves as our nation’s chief well being care officer, there’s a actual hazard that he’ll proceed to unfold doubt and misinformation, probably inflicting vaccination charges to fall and resulting in extra preventable deaths. America can’t permit that to occur.
The tragedy in Samoa 5 years in the past reveals not simply how decrease vaccination charges can result in a public well being disaster, but in addition how renewed vaccination campaigns can finish such crises. Again in 2019, I recall providing Ms. Stowers our instant help, pledging 5 medical doctors from Hawaii and 5,000 doses of the measles vaccine. She requested if we may do extra.
Inside 48 hours, we assembled a rare emergency medical staff of about 75 volunteer nurses and medical doctors to fly to Samoa. Organizations reminiscent of UNICEF and the Well being Care Affiliation of Hawaii offered important medical provides, together with vaccines. The staff’s willingness to drop every part to assist a neighboring Pacific nation was nothing in need of extraordinary.
Our aircraft landed in Samoa on Dec. 4, 2019, very first thing within the morning. Over the subsequent day and a half, alongside just a few hundred Samoan well being care staff, our staff traveled from village to village and vaccinated tens of hundreds of individuals. By the point our aircraft took off for Hawaii the subsequent afternoon, we had helped curb the measles epidemic. Well being knowledge launched later that month confirmed a dramatic decline in circumstances, the results of Samoa’s vaccination fee reaching 95 %.
However we additionally witnessed the lethal penalties of the anti-vaccine marketing campaign. We arrived at one residence simply minutes after a toddler lady had died from measles, her mom bursting into tears as we approached. The kid was mendacity completely nonetheless on a makeshift mattress in the midst of the household’s one-room home, her face nonetheless crimson from fever. I put my palms on her face and will really feel the heat in her pores and skin, however her eyes had been mounted and glazed over. My stethoscope confirmed she was not respiration.
Regardless of her extreme case of measles, her household was caring for her at residence as a result of the hospital was stuffed past capability and there weren’t sufficient medical doctors, nurses or beds accessible to accommodate her. We shared a second of mourning for her together with her mother and father, after which proceeded to vaccinate her relations on the mother and father’ request earlier than we needed to transfer on to proceed our mission.
The measles epidemic in Samoa was a heartbreaking instance of how rapidly issues can go unsuitable when vaccination charges are allowed to fall. A tragic human error in 2018 involving improperly ready vaccines led to the deaths of two local infants, shaking public confidence. Although the vaccine was confirmed to be secure, many mother and father grew to become hesitant to immunize their kids.
Mr. Kennedy and others fanned the flames of this concern with misinformation. The folks of Samoa shared with me that they bought little or no information from outdoors their group, however within the months earlier than the 2019 epidemic they’d been bombarded with social media posts claiming that vaccinations had been unsafe and would hurt and even kill their kids. Activists from different nations, together with Mr. Kennedy, claimed vaccines had been harmful. Many Samoans had been afraid to vaccinate their kids, and by late 2019 the epidemic was raging, overwhelming Samoa’s nationwide well being care system.
The expertise in Samoa was recent in my thoughts when the Covid-19 pandemic reached Hawaii in early 2020. As lieutenant governor, I took on the duty of protecting our folks knowledgeable with fixed updates and factual info. That steadfast strategy continued when the Covid-19 vaccine grew to become accessible and anti-vaccine propaganda continued to unfold quickly on-line. Hawaii’s vaccination fee was among the many nation’s highest and its mortality fee among the many lowest, saving hundreds of lives in our state. Like our emergency medical mission to Samoa, Hawaii’s Covid response was a testomony to what we are able to obtain when our public well being efforts are formidable and primarily based in scientific truth.
Vaccination applications are one of many best public well being achievements in human historical past. Vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years and reduce toddler mortality by 40 % worldwide. Due to worldwide vaccination applications, we have now eradicated smallpox and decreased polio circumstances by greater than 99 %. The measles vaccine alone has saved an estimated 94 million lives globally since 1974, nearly eliminating the illness in the USA since 2000.
But, regardless of the overwhelming proof for his or her security and the file of their lifesaving energy over the previous 50 years, figures reminiscent of Mr. Kennedy proceed to unfold misinformation about vaccines. On a podcast appearance in 2023, he made the declare that “There’s no vaccine that’s secure and efficient.” That is false. Such rhetoric is reckless and harmful. I noticed this for myself in Samoa.
As we glance to the long run, the opportunity of Mr. Kennedy being confirmed because the secretary of Well being and Human Companies is trigger for grave concern. I fear he would jeopardize half a century of progress and success gained by the USA on account of vaccination applications. An excessive amount of is determined by our dedication to fact and the lifesaving energy of vaccines to entrust Mr. Kennedy with the course of those applications. Our youngsters’s lives depend upon it.