Samoa’s top health official has denounced as “a complete lie” remarks that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made during his bid to become U.S. health secretary.

In 2019, a devastating measles outbreak erupted in Samoa. Eighty-three people, most of them children, died. Another 5,000 contracted the disease. In total, around 3% of the small island’s population fell ill.

Senators grilled Trump's health secretary pick over his 2019 Samoa trip, accusing him of downplaying his role in the epidemic.