RFK Jr. questions measles deaths in Pennsylvania

RFK Jr. seizes on Shapiro’s measles statements

Top Trump administration health officials are seizing on vague information from Pennsylvania to openly question the circumstances of two deaths that state health authorities attributed to measles.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) on Tuesday stood in front of television cameras and blamed misinformation for declining vaccination rates — specifically calling out the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His comments touched off a public feud between Shapiro and Kennedy and a flurry of accusations over the scope of the state’s measles outbreak. Earlier this week, Shapiro and Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra Bogen divulged only minimal information during a press conference about the deaths, citing patient privacy. Shapiro and Bogen said only that the patients were unvaccinated and from Lancaster County. They did not specify ages or whether they were members of the Amish community — or any other religious group that may be more vaccine hesitant. State authorities said the deaths were from “measles-associated” conditions but did not directly say they were caused by measles. The lack of specificity gave Kennedy and other Trump officials room to argue Shapiro was hiding something or lying about their causes of death for political gain. “We don’t know exactly what happened in Pennsylvania yet,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a Fox Business interview Thursday. “We don’t know if the children died from measles or had another condition that was already attacking them and they happened to get measles at the same time,” Oz said. “Governor Shapiro’s unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his giddy delight in announcing two measles deaths was a morose commentary on the contemporary political dialogue,” Kennedy wrote on social platform X.

“The deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers,” the health secretary added. Kennedy has adamantly said he takes no responsibility for the nation’s measles outbreak. He blames the drop in vaccination rates against measles on Biden-era COVID vaccine mandates, rather than his questioning of vaccine safety. Shapiro, meanwhile, blamed Kennedy’s spreading of misinformation for vaccine hesitancy. The back-and-forth between the two over vaccines could be a preview of 2028 messaging . Shapiro is widely expected to run for president, and undoing what Democrats call Kennedy-caused damage to public health will likely be a major issue in his campaign.

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How policy will be impacting the healthcare sector this week and beyond:

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