Two unvaccinated people have died of measles in Pennsylvania\u2019s Lancaster County, the state\u2019s health department confirmed Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen declined to give any additional information about the deaths during a media briefing, citing patient confidentiality.<\/p>\n
They are the first measles-related deaths in the U.S. this year and the first in Pennsylvania in 35 years.<\/p>\n
Lancaster County has seen the majority of measles cases in the state\u2019s growing outbreak. As of Tuesday, 393 cases have been confirmed in the state; 86 of them were diagnosed in the past week. <\/p>\n
So far, 70 people have been hospitalized in Pennsylvania for measles complications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tragic deaths remind us that measles is not a harmless illness,\u201d Dr. Jeffrey Martin, a physician at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, said during the briefing, which was held at Lancaster General Health\u2019s Women & Babies Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s appropriate that we\u2019re having this press conference at our Women and Babies Hospital. Pregnant women and children are vulnerable to measles if they are not vaccinated,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Officials declined to answer a question about whether the deaths involved either a pregnant woman or a baby. <\/p>\n
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order meant to drive down the number of vaccines<\/a> recommended for children. The move, which was backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., drew sharp criticism from pediatricians and public health experts.<\/p>\n Kennedy has a history of anti-vaccine rhetoric and, according to local reporting in 2021<\/a>, was a keynote speaker at an event in Lancaster County in which he said, without citing scientific evidence, that vaccines are harmful. <\/p>\n During Tuesday\u2019s media briefing, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Kennedy had called him to offer resources to assist in the outbreak response. Shapiro said he declined the offer. <\/p>\n \u201cI was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that\u2019s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThere\u2019s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents.\u201d<\/p>\n An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the measles deaths. <\/p>\n The grim news comes at a time when more parents than ever are actively avoiding vaccines for their children. During the 2025-26 school year, 4.2% of kindergartners, about 155,000 kids<\/a>, had at least one vaccine exemption, up from 3.6% the previous school year, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. <\/p>\n The number of kids getting the MMR vaccine in Lancaster County<\/a>, too, has been falling steadily, from 95.5% in 2017 to 87.6% in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n