U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked his newly appointed CDC director to remove a reference to two Pennsylvania fatalities from the agency’s online measles tracker after questioning whether the virus contributed to the deaths, according to a new report.
Kennedy’s request came after staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already accepted the state’s classification of the deaths as linked to measles, a Pennsylvania official stated.
Despite this, Erica Schwartz, the recently named director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agreed to Kennedy’s instruction and implemented it without raising objections, three anonymous sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
The decision followed a contentious exchange on social media between Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist appointed by President Donald Trump, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. Both officials blamed each other for politicizing the outbreak in Pennsylvania, the latest state to face a resurgence of measles since the Trump administration took office.
Figures from the CDC and individual state agencies indicate that vaccination rates have been falling, with several medical bodies citing growing vaccine hesitancy as a major factor. In Pennsylvania alone, the state health department has recorded 540 measles cases this year.
Georges Benjamin, chief executive of the American Public Health Association and former secretary of health in Maryland, said it is "unheard of" for the CDC to publicly express doubt over the determinations of state and local health departments, even if the agency wants further details.
"The secretary had no business interfering in the normal process," Benjamin said. "He has an anti-vaccine agenda and he's using this to play out his anti-vaccine agenda."
Grace Davis Jamison, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees the CDC, said the public health agency "requested details necessary to determine whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths." She pointed to conflicting reports between county and state health officials over what occurred. Jamison did not comment on the involvement of Kennedy or Schwartz in excluding the deaths. Schwartz did not respond to a request for comment.
For years, Kennedy has promoted the claim that vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent, despite decades of scientific evidence demonstrating that they save lives. The combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine routinely administered to children in the U.S. has been shown to offer 97% protection against infection.
As health secretary, Kennedy has sought to downplay the impact of growing U.S. measles cases, which are now at their highest level in over three decades. He has repeatedly cast doubt on whether the virus was directly linked to the several fatalities reported so far.
RFK Jr and Josh Shapiro’s heated exchange
The Pennsylvania health department informed the CDC of two measles-associated deaths on the morning of August 25 before publishing the update on its website, according to the Pennsylvania official, who is close to Shapiro.
Pennsylvania did not provide details regarding the circumstances of the fatalities other than stating that the two individuals were unvaccinated. The CDC raised no concerns regarding the information it received and "signified its ongoing support for the (state health) department’s efforts," the official noted.
Kennedy phoned Shapiro later that day to offer federal assistance to help manage the state’s outbreak, the governor stated at a press conference. Shapiro said he thanked Kennedy and noted that the state had initiated a strong response, including existing help from CDC and HHS personnel, but added he would contact the secretary if further assistance was required.
Shapiro also noted he told Kennedy that the health secretary’s previous statements fueled conspiracy theories and misinformation regarding vaccine safety, "having a negative impact on communities across America."
Kennedy responded on X the following day, August 26, accusing Shapiro of failing to share details with the CDC and questioning whether the deaths were "altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers."
That same day, officials from the Pennsylvania health department discussed aspects of the two cases with the CDC, the official close to Shapiro said. The CDC requested medical records containing personally identifiable information about the deceased, which state law prohibits officials from sharing, the official explained. The state offered to supply additional anonymized data, but the federal agency has not completed the necessary paperwork, the official added.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania health department stated that the state has "provided all required epidemiological data to the CDC."
On Friday, the CDC delayed its regular weekly update to its measles data webpage. When the page was updated on Sunday, it omitted the Pennsylvania deaths and added an asterisk to its mortality table with the following note: "At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the (Pennsylvania) deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles."
The CDC has not detailed what information it will rely on to determine whether the Pennsylvania deaths were caused by measles, given that it is not collaborating with the state health department in its investigation.
