US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked the new director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to remove a reference to two deaths in Pennsylvania from the agency's online measles case count, after questioning whether the disease had contributed to the deaths, three sources familiar with the situation said.
Kennedy's request came after CDC officials had already accepted the state's classification linking the deaths to measles, according to a Pennsylvania official.
Despite this, Erica Schwartz, the newly appointed director of the CDC, agreed with Kennedy's determination and implemented it without objection, said the three sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move followed a heated exchange of accusations on social media between Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist appointed by President Donald Trump, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro of the Democratic Party. The two have accused each other of politicizing the outbreak in Pennsylvania, the latest state to face a measles resurgence since the Trump administration took office.
Data from the CDC and individual states show that vaccination rates have been falling, and many medical organizations point to increased vaccine hesitancy as a leading cause. In Pennsylvania alone, the state Department of Health has reported 540 cases of measles this year.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association and former Maryland health secretary, said it was "unprecedented" for the CDC to publicly raise doubts about the findings of state and local health departments, even as the agency seeks more information.
"The secretary should not have interfered in the normal process," Benjamin said. "He has an anti-vaccine agenda and he's using that to put it into practice."
Grace Davis Jamison, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said the public health agency "requested the details necessary to determine whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths." She cited conflicting reports from county and state health officials about what had occurred. Jamison did not comment on Kennedy or Schwartz's role in excluding the deaths. Schwartz did not respond to a request for comment.
For years, Kennedy has promoted the idea that vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent, despite decades of scientific evidence showing they save lives. The MMR vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella, routinely administered to children in the United States, has been shown to provide 97% protection against infection.
As health secretary, Kennedy has sought to minimize the impact of the rise in measles cases in the United States, which are now at their highest level in more than three decades. He has repeatedly questioned whether the virus was directly related to the several deaths recorded so far.
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The Pennsylvania Department of Health notified the CDC of two deaths associated with measles on the morning of Aug. 25 and then posted the information on its website, according to the Pennsylvania official, who is close to Shapiro.
Pennsylvania did not release information about the circumstances of the deaths, other than to say that the two people were not vaccinated. The CDC expressed no concerns about the information received and "signaled its continued support for the state Department of Health's efforts," the official said.
Kennedy called Shapiro and offered federal support to combat the measles outbreak in the state, the governor said at a news conference later that day. Shapiro said he thanked Kennedy and informed him that the state had implemented a strong response, including existing support from officials at the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services, but that he would let the secretary know if they needed more help.
Shapiro also said he told Kennedy that the Health Secretary's previous statements had encouraged conspiracy theories and misinformation about vaccine safety, "causing a negative impact on communities across the United States."
Kennedy fired back on
That same day, the Pennsylvania Department of Health discussed some details of the two cases with the CDC, the official close to Shapiro said. The CDC requested medical records that contained personally identifiable information about the deceased, data that the state is legally barred from sharing, according to the Pennsylvania official. The state has offered to provide the CDC with more information without identifying data, but the federal agency has not yet approved the necessary documentation, the official added.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health said the state "has provided the CDC with all required epidemiological data."
On Friday, the CDC postponed the regular weekly update of its measles data website. When it updated the page on Sunday, it did not include deaths in Pennsylvania, but added an asterisk to the table of deaths with the following note: "At this time, the available information does not allow us to determine whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths (in Pennsylvania) or whether people died from other causes while infected with measles."
The CDC has not said what data it will use to determine whether the Pennsylvania deaths were caused by measles, as it is not working with the state Department of Health on the investigation.
