Top US health officials and government agencies are currently not including the two recent measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in their counts.
“This is highly unusual,” said Debra Houry, former chief medical officer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She noted that this did not happen with the three deaths reported from measles in Texas and New Mexico last year.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), gave the wrong number of measles deaths in a recent interview with Fox News.
“In 10 years, there have been three measles deaths in America,” he said, comparing that with deaths from “food-induced illness” – a category the CDC does not appear to track. “The media and certain demagogue politicians are constantly trying to scare us about infectious disease,” Kennedy said, adding that he was attempting to “redirect attention and resource [sic] to the thing that’s really killing Americans, which are foodborne diseases”.
There were three deaths associated with measles in the US last year, the first deaths from the virus in a decade. But Pennsylvania also reported two measles-related deaths in August, including at least one newborn who died soon after birth.
Kennedy has suggested that these two deaths were “fabricated”.
The CDC has also stopped short of reporting deaths from measles in 2026.
The agency posted a note on Friday saying it was delaying its weekly update, keeping the number at zero. On Sunday, the measles landing page appears to have been updated twice, with the two deaths first reported and then replaced with an asterisk.
The CDC will not include the two deaths reported by Pennsylvania “while CDC reviews additional information regarding the circumstances and causes of death”, an explanatory note reads. The agency added that “available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles”.
This is not how deaths reported by states to the CDC are typically handled. The deaths in Texas and New Mexico last year, for instance, were reported by the two states and included in the CDC’s national tally.
Usually, “states notify CDC of reportable cases on things such as measles. CDC does not review or adjudicate these cases unless a state asked for additional assistance”, Houry said.
The unusual approach will probably affect the agency’s relationship with the states that report to it. “CDC and states usually work collaboratively together,” Houry said. “This will undermine that relationship.”
The CDC has not clarified what information it is seeking about these cases and why this data was not acceptable. The agency is “working to determine what actually occurred”, according to a post on X sent by an HHS spokesperson in response to the Guardian’s inquiries.
“The communication coming from CDC’s official channel on Friday was political and not focused on what should be done during an outbreak,” Houry said.
An Amish couple in Lancaster county interviewed by the Atlantic said their newborn son died immediately after birth. The mother was severely ill with measles and went into labor one month early. The baby was born with a pulse, but was not breathing; paramedics were unable to resuscitate him.
The mother said she was concerned about rising measles cases, but she was unable to get vaccinated because she was pregnant. The US has recently fallen below the threshold to keep measles outbreaks in check, which would protect vulnerable infants, pregnant people and others at particular risk of measles.
The father said he had received a voicemail asking him to get in touch with Kennedy, but he had not responded.
In 2021, Kennedy, then the leader of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, praised the Amish of Lancaster county for not vaccinating their children. Though the Amish do not have any formal religious objection to vaccines, they are frequently disconnected from the healthcare system.
While Kennedy said he was attempting to focus on foodborne illnesses, he did not appear to comment on two deaths from the cyclospora outbreak that sickened more than 17,000 Americans this summer, instead saying only that the outbreak was “under control”. Foodborne illnesses also often fall under the umbrella of infectious disease.
