Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed Pennsylvania has refused to share information on two “so-called” measles death.
Kennedy made the claim during a town hall on Fox News’ Saturday in America, as host and anchor Kayleigh McEnany took questions from the audience.
A woman from the audience referenced the two measles fatalities in the Keystone State before asking Kennedy, “please tell me if you think the measles, MMR vaccinations should be mandatory.”
Kennedy claimed Gov. Josh Shapiro had rolled out the “Covid playbook” in announcing the historic deaths, the first in the state from measles in 35 years:
Well, you know, we’re still trying to get information about the measles deaths.
The so-called measles deaths in Lancaster county.
I talked with the county coroner or the county commissioner this morning, and he says there were no measles deaths.
There was a press conference by the governor. It was highly pretty politicized, and we saw a lot of the Covid playbook rolled out where there was finger pointing and politicizing and fear mongering, but the governor has not been able to point to any child who died from measles in Lancaster county.
We’ve asked repeatedly, the county health department has asked repeatedly, so we’re trying to get that information.
We’ve done better at controlling measles than any country in the world. We have a global measles epidemic right now that’s occurring because during Covid lockdowns children did not get vaccinated across the globe, and a lot of people across the globe lost faith in the public health system so vaccination rates for the MMR dropped from 97% to 92.3% and so you’re seeing more kids with measles.
McEnany was quick to point out that the Pennsylvania Department of Health had announced the deaths.
The known vaccine skeptic did late4r insist: “There’s no reason that anybody in America should die of measles in this day and age. There’s no reason. It’s malpractice if that happens” while adding “the MMR vaccine works.”
The United States had eradicated measles in 2000 before cases of the infectious disease surged to record numbers so far this year, with more than 2,300 cases.
Kennedy and Shapiro shared a war of words on X after news of the deaths emerged earlier this week.
Kennedy claimed Shapiro falsely accused him of discrediting the MMR vaccine, while Shapiro said he told Kennedy to “stop spreading misinformation.”
“He then launched into a tirade — talking about fetal tissue and blaming the previous Administration for this problem. He even told me it would be better if we went back to ‘natural measles,'” Shapiro wrote on X.
“Unfortunately at a time where I needed the top ‘health expert’ in the nation to responsibly work with us to deal with this outbreak, he instead chose to go down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and false claims,” Shapiro added.
Watch above via Fox.
The post RFK Jr. Claims During Fox News Town Hall That Pennsylvania Won’t Share Information on ‘So-Called’ Measles Deaths first appeared on Mediaite.