Amid Deadly Pennsylvania Outbreak, Kennedy Blames Biden For Decline In Measles Vax Rates

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on Wednesday said CDC workers have been unable to confirm measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania before blaming the nationwide decline in measles vaccinations on the Biden administration.

As Pennsylvania announced two unvaccinated residents had died from the measles, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro blamed the reported outbreak on the Trump administration’s vaccine rhetoric and on Kennedy, who has blamed Covid-19 lockdowns for the measles resurgence in the country.

Kennedy said during a Wednesday news conference in Tampa that Shapiro’s office was unwilling to provide CDC workers with any details about the deaths. He went on to praise the country’s response to the recent increase in measles outbreaks, with 36 reported to the CDC this year alone.

“We’re doing a better job than any country in the world in controlling the measles outbreak,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy answered questions about the Pennsylvania outbreak after attending a roundtable discussion at Tampa Bay Boulevard Elementary School with Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) about a $32 million federal program offering money for schools to produce “nutrient dense” foods.

The current nationwide measles vaccination rate of 92.4 percent is a drop from the 95 percent recorded in 2019. Kennedy said the decrease was the result of an erosion of public trust in the medical system during the Covid pandemic. Though Kennedy has promoted both the measles vaccine and personal choice during his time as HHS secretary, his prior advocacy included claims that the measles vaccine had not led to a drop in deaths.

Kennedy noted that Shapiro admitted to him during a Tuesday phone call that the drop in vaccinations took place while Joe Biden was in the White House.

In response, Shapiro said in a post on X before Kennedy's Wednesday appearance that he did not blame the Biden administration for the drop in measles vaccinations. He instead asked Kennedy to join him in encouraging vaccinations and putting an end to the “misinformation."

“Unfortunately at a time where I needed the top health expert in the nation to responsibly work with us to deal with this outbreak,” Shapiro wrote, "he instead chose to go down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and false claims,” referencing what the governor called "a tirade — talking about fetal tissue and blaming the previous Administration for this problem."

The two Pennsylvania deaths occurred in a sparsely populated part of Lancaster County. Generally, states will limit the availability of public health data from rural communities due to federal patient privacy laws.

An executive order signed by Trump earlier this month sought to shrink the list of federally recommended childhood immunizations from 18 vaccines to 11. The list still includes the measles vaccine, and Kennedy said the Trump administration has helped staunch the declining rate of cases, before pointing to large outbreaks in Mexico and the United Kingdom.

“Our advice is that people should get the measles vaccination,” Kennedy said. “There are certain communities and certain religious communities that do not want to do that, and we want to take care of those kids as well.”

In Florida, the state Department of Health unveiled a set of proposed changes earlier this week to rules governing school vaccination requirements. They included removing four vaccines from the state’s child immunization certification form and adding a religious exemption based on one’s own personal beliefs. Trump’s order called on states to make science-based changes to childhood vaccine schedules, and Kennedy said Florida has heeded the president’s call, and that parents should be able to make decisions about vaccines, not the government.

“Parents ought to have a say in that, and the decision should be between the parents and the physician, and not the state,” Kennedy said.