CDC sends a ‘disease detective’ to Pennsylvania amid measles outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sending a disease expert to assist with the response to the ongoing measles outbreak in Pennsylvania.

“CDC will continue working closely with Pennsylvania health officials to provide the expertise and support needed to respond to the outbreak and protect public health,” the spokesperson told NBC News.

The Hill has reached out to the CDC for comment.

Pennsylvania has seen a surge in measles cases in recent months, reporting its sixth death from the disease last week. The Commonwealth surpassed 1,000 measles cases in early October.

The measles outbreak in the state has been the source of disagreement between state and federal officials. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) blamed the Trump administration for its rhetoric on vaccines and medicine, specifically Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Shapiro and Kennedy, perhaps the most prominent vaccine skeptic in the U.S., clashed in August, with the governor claiming Kennedy is focused on conspiracy theories instead of providing assistance to Pennsylvania.

“I told him what would be most helpful is if he would join me in encouraging people to get vaccinated and stop spreading misinformation. He then launched into a tirade — talking about fetal tissue and blaming the previous Administration for this problem,” Shapiro wrote in a post to the social platform X. “He even told me it would be better if we went back to “natural measles.”

Kennedy claimed Shapiro provided no evidence that he’s spread the vaccine misinformation.

“During our phone conversation, Governor Shapiro also accused me of promoting vaccine misinformation. When I asked him for an example, he was unable to provide one,” Kennedy wrote on X at the time.

In that same post, Kennedy claimed at length that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine contained “fetal tissue,” an assertion which Shapiro and medical professionals reject. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that vaccines do not contain fetal cells.

The MMR vaccination rate in Pennsylvania has declined in recent years, and less than 1 percent of measles cases in Pennsylvania are among vaccinated people, according to the Commonwealth’s health department.

President Trump signed an executive order in August recommending splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate shots, linking the vaccine to autism and at one point saying it was “lethal.” Experts have debunked links between the MMR vaccine and autism.

The CDC spokesperson told NBC News that CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz recommends the MMR vaccine as “the most effective” way to prevent infection.