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SALT LAKE CITY — Protect Our Care launched digital ads in Utah recently, urging Sen.-elect John Curtis to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
"We just felt that our health care is in deep peril," said Anne Shoup, the senior strategist at Protect Our Care. "If RFK Jr. is confirmed, every American will be put at risk. We think that he represents a unique threat because of his anti-science, extreme views on vaccines, and he's also deeply unqualified to run a major organization like the Department of Health and Human Services."
Their efforts come as Kennedy, a former Democrat who is now an ally of President-elect Donald Trump, heads over to Capitol Hill this week to garner support from the Senate ahead of his confirmation hearings, most likely to be scheduled for the first two weeks of January.
Protect Our Care is a Democrat-aligned health care advocacy group created following Trump's first term in office. At the time, its goal was to prop up the Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare. Following Trump's nomination of RFK Jr., the advocacy group sprang into action, launching a "Stop RFK War Room."
Protect Our Care targets senators in multiple states
Curtis, who said he'd "be studying myself what (Kennedy Jr.'s) actually said, what his positions are," is among several senators the group is targeting. Other names on the list are Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, and Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice of West Virginia. Shoup described the senators on the list as "reasonable" people.
Aside from Crapo, who is leaning yes, saying he believes RFK Jr. would "focus on lifestyle and healthy eating," none of the above-mentioned senators have revealed how they plan to vote on the nomination, as The Washington Post reported. Many of them have said they hope to learn more about Kennedy Jr.'s positions at the official confirmation hearing.
Protect Our Care is hoping to convince at least four senators to vote against Kennedy's nomination. One senator they haven't targeted, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, is expected to grill Kennedy at his hearing.
McConnell gave Kennedy a warning last week, referring to a recent New York Times report about Kennedy's lawyer petitioning to make federal regulators take the polio vaccine off the market.
"Anyone seeking the Senate's consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts," McConnell said in a statement, as The Hill reported. But as senators raised questions, Kennedy, who has previously said no vaccine is "safe and effective," announced he is "all for" the polio vaccine.
What's in the Protect Our Care's digital ads in Utah?
Protect Our Care's digital advertisement in Utah features information about the 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
In 2018, two children in Samoa died after receiving a measles vaccine. The nurses administering the vaccine prepared the doses with an expired anesthetic instead of diluent, and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges. But anti-vaccine groups blamed the vaccine for the deaths. In June the next year, Kennedy visited the region to meet with the local anti-vaccine activists and campaigned against these vaccines.
As Samoans began avoiding vaccinating their newborns against measles, an outbreak spread, leading to about 5,700 cases and 83 deaths. At the time, Kennedy wrote in a letter to the Samoa prime minister, "To safeguard public health during the current infection and in the future, it is critical that the Samoan Health Ministry determine, scientifically, if the outbreak was caused by inadequate vaccine coverage or alternatively, by a defective vaccine."
Pacific Islanders nationally are about 0.5% of the population in the U.S., as the Deseret News previously reported. In Utah, they are closer to 2% of the population. Samoans are one of the largest Polynesian groups in Utah, at 30%.
This demographic has a lengthy history in Utah: In the 1880s, the first Samoans resided in Castle Dale in central Utah and Heber Valley, east of Salt Lake City, part of the first Polynesian colony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Protect Our Care hopes to touch on a pain point that the Samoan population in Utah is familiar with. "If you just give somebody the soapbox to spread misinformation about vaccines, it can have deadly consequences," said Shoup.
Billboards across 7 states
Protect Our Care is also putting up 18 billboards in several cities across seven states, including Boise, Idaho, New Orleans, Louisiana, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, among others. The group is also hosting events by partnering with allied groups, nurses, doctors, public health experts and healthcare activists around the country.
Kennedy, who served on a vaccine safety commission during Trump's first administration, has promised to put up a big fight against "Big Pharma" and purge the Food and Drug Administration if he secures his nomination to the president-elect's incoming Cabinet.
"FDA's war on public health is about to end," Kennedy wrote on the social platform X in late October. "If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags."
Protect Our Care's Shoup said Kennedy speaks in "kernels of truth." Yes, the pharmaceutical industry needs reform, she said, but she doesn't believe there is a scientific basis for doing away with a commonly used and life-saving vaccine.
Correction: An earlier version said Sen. Lisa Murkowski represents Arkansas, but should have said Alaska.
