Trump, Kennedy Jr. criticize Shapiro’s response to measles outbreak in Pennsylvania
President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just spoke about the measles outbreak in Pennsylvania. They both were critical of Governor Josh Shapiro.
“One of the problems with Pennsylvania is that the governor has very recently refused to cooperate with CDC. We were able to go in and end the outbreaks in all the other states in South Dakota and Texas and all the other states. We sent our EPI team into those states. And I offered that to Governor Shapiro and he said no, we don’t need your help,” said Kennedy.
“They’ve got a bad governor in Pennsylvania. People just don’t know it. He’s very, he’s close to incompetent,” said Trump.
Shapiro responds
Within the hour, Shapiro responded on X, saying, “Incompetence is letting measles reemerge. Incompetence is spending your time promoting outright lies instead of urging people to get a vaccination that would protect them against this deadly disease. Incompetence is denying the tragedy of four measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania. Incompetence is standing right behind you, Mr. President.”
As of today, the CDC is not recognizing the state’s four measles-associated deaths on its measles dashboard.
The DOH says it’s now using that as a condition as part of its request for emergency assistance from the agency to help control this outbreak.
In a letter, Secretary of Health Debra Bogen wrote, “While the CDC Epi-Aid program is an important public health resource, for the program to be valuable to Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak response, I must be able to assure the public health professionals on my team that the resources we are bringing in to assist with their tireless work will not undermine their efforts and will partner with them toward a common goal, including publication of timely, accurate information about the outbreak.”
She goes on to say that includes the CDC acknowledging the loss of four Pennsylvanians to the virus.