{"id":827128,"date":"2026-08-27T03:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827128\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T03:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:22:21","slug":"pennsylvania-governor-and-health-secretary-clash-over-measles-outbreak-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827128\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania governor and health secretary clash over measles outbreak response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania governor and health secretary clash over measles outbreak response<\/p>\n

\"Susan<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has revealed that one of two measles-associated deaths in the state is under investigation by the Lancaster County Coroner. <\/p>\n

The coroner said their office is reviewing the death of a newborn who died at home last week. An autopsy showed the infant suffered a ruptured spleen, and a PCR blood test confirmed evidence of the measles virus.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are publicly clashing over vaccine messaging and government cooperation following two measles-associated deaths in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n

Shapiro warns of consequences from misinformation<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed that the two individuals who died were unvaccinated. During a press conference in Lancaster, Shapiro said he had a conversation with Kennedy about what he described as misinformation being spread by the secretary and the White House. <\/p>\n

“I do worry about the U.S. health secretary or anyone else maligning a particular community or neighborhood or county in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “Part of the reason why I was late is I’ve been sitting out in the parking lot talking to Secretary Kennedy, who reached out to me this morning, and while I appreciate his willingness to offer staff to assist us, we think we’re able to manage this through the Department of Health. I was very, very blunt with him, and I made it very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania. There are real-life consequences to spreading misinformation.” <\/p>\n

\"Image\"ImageKennedy accuses Pennsylvania of withholding information<\/p>\n

Kennedy, speaking in Florida on Wednesday, weighed in on the deaths and alleged that Pennsylvania is not cooperating with the federal government. <\/p>\n

“We’re trying to get information about those two casualties,” Kennedy said. “According to a statement that was released by the Lancaster County Commissioner today, he cannot find any measles in Lancaster County. They complain that the governor will not give them that information. The CDC tried to get that information from the governor yesterday, and the state is refusing to cooperate. We’re doing a better job than any other country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak. This is a worldwide epidemic.” <\/p>\n

Kennedy also rejected accusations of undermining trust, saying Shapiro could not identify a specific example of misinformation during their conversation. He pushed back on claims that he was responsible for Pennsylvania’s declining vaccination rates, asserting that Shapiro admitted most of the decline occurred during the Biden administration. <\/p>\n

In a new statement on Wednesday, Shapiro said, “Unfortunately, at a time when 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.” <\/p>\n

\"Image\"ImagePennsylvania reports 31 new measles cases<\/p>\n

Since Monday, Pennsylvania has reported 31 new confirmed measles cases, with Lancaster County remaining the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for 12 of those cases. Statewide, there have been a total of 424 measles cases this year.<\/p>\n

The Lancaster County Coroner has emphasized that all cases of communicable diseases posing a public health threat must be reported to the coroner’s office. <\/p>\n

“Measles cases must also be reported to the state Department of Health,” the coroner said.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n

This content is imported from infogram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania governor and health secretary clash over measles outbreak response The Pennsylvania Department of Health has revealed that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[14803,13897,64509,120669,350374,97,119255,252,253,350377,9465,22326,350373,350379,349799,49708,185391,350378,3234,293805,88760,282266,55416,350375,350376,6601],"class_list":["post-827128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-administration","tag-cdc","tag-consequence","tag-gov-josh-shapiro","tag-government-cooperation","tag-health","tag-health-and-human-services-secretary-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-information-kennedy","tag-kennedy","tag-lancaster-county","tag-lancaster-county-coroner","tag-measle-outbreak-fuel","tag-measles-associated-death","tag-misinformation","tag-new-measle-case","tag-particular-community","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-department","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-health","tag-pennsylvania-governor","tag-shapiro","tag-two-measles-associated-deaths","tag-vaccine-messaging","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}