{"id":276678,"date":"2026-09-01T18:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276678\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:28:12","slug":"cdc-scrubs-two-pennsylvania-measles-deaths-from-its-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276678\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC Scrubs Two Pennsylvania Measles Deaths From Its Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed two measles deaths in Pennsylvania from a national database just days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly disputed<\/a> whether state officials had properly classified the cases.<\/p>\n

The two deaths had been reflected in the CDC\u2019s national count before being scrubbed over the weekend. The CDC said in a note posted to its website<\/a> that it was reviewing \u201cadditional information regarding the circumstances and causes of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently available information \u201cdoes not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles,\u201d the note says. The message mirrors the questions raised by Kennedy on Aug. 26 during a public spat with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who has downplayed the severity of measles outbreaks<\/a> during his tenure, questioned whether the contagious disease played an active role in the deaths. He also suggested the deaths may have been \u201cfabricated\u201d by one of Shapiro\u2019s staffers.<\/p>\n

The fatalities, flagged to the CDC by Pennsylvania on Aug. 25, are the state\u2019s first reported measles-related deaths in 35 years. Pennsylvania has recorded almost 500 measles cases this year, according to the state Department of Health, one of the highest numbers in the country.<\/p>\n

One of the two people who died was a newborn who state health officials said<\/a> had tested positive for measles and died from a ruptured spleen. Both deaths occurred in Pennsylvania\u2019s Lancaster County.<\/p>\n

The deaths aggravated Shapiro, who said in a news conference Aug. 26 that there were \u201creal-life consequences to spreading misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKennedy\u2019s actions to dismantle public health agencies and his language that undermines confidence in vetted medical guidance are contributing to these kinds of outbreaks,\u201d Shapiro wrote on X<\/a> later in the day. \u201cJust a few years ago, Secretary Kennedy was in Lancaster downplaying the severity of measles and saying that the cure was \u2018chicken soup and vitamin A.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed two measles deaths in Pennsylvania from a national database just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-276678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}