Overview
- HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked CDC director Erica Schwartz to remove two Lancaster County deaths from the agency’s public measles mortality table and the CDC’s update omitted the fatalities and added a note that available information does not establish causation.
- Pennsylvania had reported the two unvaccinated people as measles-associated deaths and the Lancaster County coroner said a newborn tested positive for measles but died of a ruptured spleen while state health officials said their definition counts deaths when measles is present.
- HHS and the CDC say they requested additional information to determine whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths, and Pennsylvania says it provided required epidemiological data but cannot share identifiable medical records because of legal limits.
- Public health leaders criticized the secretary’s intervention as unprecedented, noting that CDC staff initially accepted the state’s determination and saying the move risks undermining cooperation between federal and state health agencies.
- The dispute comes as Pennsylvania reports hundreds of measles cases and U.S. infections have reached decades-high levels due to falling MMR coverage, a trend experts say could be worsened if public trust in official data and guidance erodes.