Pennsylvania’s First Measles Deaths in 35 Years, Now a Real Dispute Over the Records
Pennsylvania has reported its first measles-associated deaths in 35 years, part of a statewide outbreak now at more than 400 confirmed cases across 29 counties, per the Philadelphia Inquirer's Aug. 26 reporting. This week it turned into a public fight: RFK Jr., the Trump administration's Health and Human Services Secretary, said in a CSPAN interview that “they cannot find any measles deaths in Lancaster County,” then followed up on social media suggesting Gov. Shapiro's office may have “fabricated” them. Shapiro fired back on social media, telling Kennedy to stop spreading misinformation, and in later remarks accused him of pushing a “rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and false claims,” Mediaite reports.
Here's what's actually verifiable: Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni told LancasterOnline flatly that “no measles deaths were handled by our office.” His office is investigating one case: an infant who tested positive for measles but died of a ruptured or lacerated spleen. According to Diamantoni, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy did not believe the death was related to measles, though the investigation into whether the infant's mother had measles at the time of birth is still open, per the Inquirer. Diamantoni told LancasterOnline he's pointed to a couple of possible reasons his records don't line up with the state's count, including that his office may not yet have the state's paperwork on its “measles-associated” classification, or that a death could have been handled by another county's coroner. In his own words: “I can't state what the governor or state would decide. I'm not sure how they're classifying.” That's a real, open records question, not a resolved dispute in either direction.
None of that changes the state's broader vaccination push: the Pennsylvania Department of Health says 91 pop-up clinics have run so far with 40 more planned, and that more than 35,000 Pennsylvanians got an MMR shot in July alone (not limited to those clinics). The department's own figures put two-dose MMR protection at 97 percent. No case has been confirmed in Monroe County as of this writing.
