Aloha,

Five years ago today, while serving as Hawaii’s Lt. Governor, Josh led an emergency medical mission of 75 doctors and nurses from Hawaii to fight a devastating measles epidemic in Samoa.
 
After receiving a call for aid from the Samoan Minister of Health, Josh quickly assembled a team of healthcare professionals and lined up the private donors and community support needed to fund the mission of compassion and aloha.

Hawaiian Airlines, Par Hawaii, and Fiji Airways stepped in to fund travel and fuel, while organizations like the Health Care Association of Hawaii rallied to provide essential medical supplies.

In just 48 hours, the medical team from Hawaii delivered 37,000 vaccinations across the island nation, raising Samoa’s national vaccination rate to 90% and saving countless lives.

"It was a feat of human effort I’ve never seen before,” Josh said of the emergency mission.

The mission to Samoa in December 2019 not only saved lives but demonstrated the power of collaboration, compassion, and swift action in the face of crisis.

But the tragedy was preventable — anti-vaccine misinformation spread in Samoa by RFK Jr. and others left too many children unvaccinated, allowing a highly contagious virus to spread rapidly across the island nation.

“Spreading anti-vaccine misinformation in Samoa cost the lives of 83 people, mostly children, and thousands of preventable cases of measles,” Josh said. “This kind of rhetoric is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous — and puts everyone's children at risk.”

Since the measles epidemic in Samoa five years ago, Josh has continued to advocate for science-based responses to disease outbreaks and to fight against anti-vaccine misinformation, including the recent nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Vaccination programs are one of the greatest public health achievements in human history,” Josh said. "They protect our communities, especially the most vulnerable among us. Samoa's epidemic showed the heartbreaking cost of neglecting these programs, and it’s a lesson we cannot afford to ignore.”

According to a report published this year in Scientific American, vaccines have saved over 150 million lives over the past fifty years and have cut infant mortality by 40% worldwide.

“RFK Jr. has claimed that, ‘There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.’ That statement is utterly false and has no basis in science,” Josh said. “His nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is deeply alarming — our nation’s health policies must be guided by science and a commitment to protecting lives, not by conspiracy theories that put children’s lives at risk."

As we remember the compassion and aloha of the Samoa emergency mission, let’s also commit to protecting the progress we’ve made in public health.

Vaccination programs around the world save millions of lives every year, and we need leaders who will champion these efforts, not undermine them.

Thank you for standing with us to build a healthier, safer future for our state, our country, and our neighbors around the world.

Mahalo,

Team Green