{"id":838637,"date":"2026-09-06T17:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T17:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/838637\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T17:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T17:26:12","slug":"rfk-jr-s-sickening-measles-victory-lap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/838637\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr.\u2019s Sickening Measles Victory Lap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. IS CLAIMING vindication in an ongoing controversy about a measles outbreak in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

He shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

At the center of the controversy are two measles-related deaths that the state announced<\/a> on August 25. Both were in Lancaster County, home to a large Amish population<\/a>. The state didn\u2019t immediately release more biographical details, but after the announcement Josh Shapiro, the state\u2019s Democratic governor, held a press conference to warn about the public health threat and urge residents to vaccinate both themselves and their children.<\/p>\n

At the briefing, Shapiro also talked about Kennedy\u2014who, the governor said, had called to offer condolences and support. Shapiro said he conveyed his appreciation, while also expressing \u201cblunt\u201d criticism that the \u201cactions and the rhetoric that [are] coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a reference to the myriad ways the administration has<\/a> undermined<\/a> federal<\/a> support<\/a> for<\/a> vaccination<\/a>\u2014like Kennedy posting misinformation<\/a> on the official CDC website, and Donald Trump signing executive orders<\/a> to roll back official childhood vaccination recommendations. The criticism did not sit well with Kennedy, who fired off<\/a> tweets<\/a> accusing Shapiro of taking \u201cgiddy delight in announcing two measles deaths\u201d when the evidence was not yet clear.<\/p>\n

It was even possible, Kennedy said, that the link between the deaths and measles may have been \u201cfabricated by one of the Governor\u2019s hopeful staffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy at the time was drawing on some genuine ambiguity over what exactly had happened. The state hadn\u2019t released ages or other biographical details. Meanwhile, the Lancaster County coroner said his office knew about one death\u2014and only one death\u2014of somebody with measles. But, the coroner said, it was an infant whose cause of death was actually a ruptured spleen.<\/p>\n

Then, on Friday, the coroner announced his office had learned that another person who had measles had died<\/a>. But in this case it was a six-week-old in palliative care for a congenital condition that is typically fatal within a few months\u2014yet more proof, Kennedy tweeted<\/a>, that Shapiro had \u201cpoliticized these two tragic deaths before the underlying causes had been established.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charge sounded plausible: Even many Kennedy critics have questioned<\/a> whether Shapiro acted too hastily, if only by publicizing the deaths before he could confirm all the facts and divulge more information.<\/p>\n

But Shapiro and other state officials maintained all along the facts were on their side. And now it looks like <\/p>\n

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Support \u2018The Breakdown\u2019\u2014Join Bulwark+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock) ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. IS CLAIMING vindication in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-838637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838637","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=838637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}