Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has finally admitted that measles was the cause of an infant’s death in Pennsylvania.
The nation has seen more measles cases in 2026 than in any year in the past three and a half decades, according to reports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 3,134 cases in the U.S., including 557 in Pennsylvania as of Thursday.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two deaths in the state that the agency believed were related to measles infections, urging residents to get vaccinated.
“Just this morning, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced the first two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in 35 years,” Governor Josh Shapiro said at an August 25 news conference. “Both of the individuals were from Lancaster County and both were unvaccinated. We hope and we pray that those deaths will be the last.”
Kennedy, a vaccine-skeptic who has been accused of not doing enough to prevent measles outbreaks, sowed doubt about the deaths, writing on X a day later: “The announcement appears to have been premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor's hopeful staffers.”
The health secretary said the coroner in Lancaster County, where both deaths occurred, had not recorded any measles deaths, adding, “Governor Shapiro got his headlines. He correctly gambled that the slavish mainstream media would dutifully amplify his scolding without any effort to check his facts.”
Kennedy then asked his newly appointed CDC director, Erica Schwartz, to remove a reference to the two deaths from the agency’s online measles tracker, and Schwartz complied, Reuters reported Thursday, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
On Friday, Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni confirmed that one of the two deaths was measles-related.
A six-week-old Amish girl with a rare genetic disorder died from measles at home, Diamantoni said in a LancasterOnline article, adding, “I believe it was the 18th of August.”
The girl had Amish lethal microcephaly, which causes affected babies to be born with unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains.
“Those children are sick from birth and actually are placed on palliative care from the time of birth. They typically only live 5 or 6 months of age and the majority of those children die as a result of a respiratory infection of any kind, because their brain is very small and they don’t have the capacity to fight those infections well,” Diamantoni explained.
The coroner confirmed that while the girl had Amish lethal microcephaly, measles was the cause of death.
Measles is a highly contagious virus that typically causes fever and a rash. It can cause serious complications, including death, especially in those under 5 years old. Public health experts say the best way to protect against measles is to get vaccinated.
Following the coroner’s findings, Shapiro wrote on X Friday, “It’s long past time for RFK to stop playing games with people’s lives, report these deaths accurately on the CDC dashboard, and heed the guidance of actual medical experts so people get accurate information to discuss with their trusted health care providers and can best protect themselves and their children against this deadly disease.”
Kennedy accepted that the infant girl died of measles, but focused on the other baby who died in Lancaster County.
“The Lancaster County Coroner has now publicly stated that measles caused only the second infant’s death and has also publicly stated that the infant had Amish lethal microcephaly…the Coroner continues to state publicly that the first infant died from a lacerated spleen, not measles,” Kennedy wrote on X Friday.
Diamantoni confirmed a newborn male tested positive for measles, but he died from a ruptured spleen on August 14, per LancasterOnline. Measles was not considered a contributing factor because “there was no swelling or enlargement whatsoever” of the spleen and there was “massive blood loss” from the laceration, Diamantoni explained.
“The facts emerging now demonstrate why CDC waited for the evidence rather than allowing political grandstanding to dictate its reporting,” Kennedy claimed.
He added that the “CDC will continue to update its reporting as additional information becomes available and relevant reviews are completed.”
