Gov. Shapiro Gets Validation: A Pennsylvanian Did Die Of Measles

This time, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Lancaster County coroner agree: An infant died of measles in the state, the first confirmed death in 35 years.

Shapiro cited the coroner’s confirmation Friday on X and took another jab at Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said last week the Democrat’s staff might have fabricated the death to make Kennedy look bad.

“Instead of listening to the real doctors and public health experts, RFK chose to sow doubt, play politics, direct the CDC not to acknowledge these deaths, and even accuse me of fabricating these tragedies,” Shapiro posted on the social media platform.

The county coroner, Stephen Diamantoni, has previously said he disagreed with Shapiro about the cause of death of another newborn, an Amish boy who died soon after birth last month. Diamantoni said the baby, who had measles, died of a ruptured spleen and that he did not believe measles contributed.

Shapiro and his health department said last week that two Pennsylvanians had died of “measles-associated” causes.

Diamantoni said earlier Friday a 6-week-old girl from the county’s Amish community died of measles at home last month. The baby had microcephaly, a condition that usually leads to death by six months of age, but measles was the cause of death, Diamantoni said, according to local media reports.

When contacted by POLITICO, Pennsylvania’s health department did not directly say the baby is the second measles-associated death it reported last week, but Press Secretary Neil Ruhland reaffirmed there were two deaths in an email statement. "The Lancaster County Coroner has now publicly confirmed a second infant death involving measles," Ruhland said.

Shapiro’s X post, referencing the coroner’s office, implied that this case is the second one he referred to last week.

The Amish community has long had low vaccination rates. Neither of the two babies was old enough to receive a measles vaccine, which is typically given at age 1.

Kennedy shot back in a post on X Friday, accusing Shapiro of politicizing the two deaths "before the underlying causes had been established."

The health secretary acknowledged the Lancaster County coroner had confirmed a measles death and went on to highlight the baby's microcephaly.

The Pennsylvania health department and Shapiro said last week they couldn’t release more details about the two deaths out of respect for the families’ privacy, but vaccination advocates said they worried that secrecy had given Kennedy and his allies, many of whom doubt vaccines are safe, an opportunity to cast the public health establishment as villains trying to manipulate people into getting vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not reported the two deaths were caused by measles on its public dashboard, saying it needs more information because of the conflicting reports from the state and local authorities. Kennedy said on X the agency was right to do so "rather than allowing political grandstanding to dictate its reporting."

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday pushed back on a Reuters report saying Kennedy asked the CDC to remove the two deaths from its tally of measles deaths, calling it “false and misleading.”

That tally says no one has died of measles in the U.S. this year — a point Kennedy allies touted before the Pennsylvania dispute to defend his handling of the epidemic — after three deaths last year. Other Kennedy allies have said the focus on measles is meant to distract from the health secretary’s fight against chronic diseases, which they say pits him against powerful pharma and food industry interests.

"The National Center for Health Statistics does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause but will update as it receives and reviews submitted records," Kennedy said on X Friday. He added that the CDC will update its tally "as additional information becomes available and relevant reviews are completed."

The CDC reports that there have been 3,134 cases of measles in 2026, up from 2,289 last year and the most since 1991. The U.S. could lose the “measles-elimination” status granted by the United Nations in 2000 if a health agency of the world body determines in November that the U.S. has seen a single outbreak of the disease last more than a year.

In his X post Friday, Shapiro called on Kennedy “to stop playing games with people’s lives, report these deaths accurately on the CDC dashboard, and heed the guidance of actual medical experts so people get accurate information to discuss with their trusted health care providers and can best protect themselves and their children against this deadly disease.”