Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that Pennsylvania officials may have fabricated deaths believed to be caused by measles.
“Governor Shapiro’s unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his giddy delight in announcing two measles deaths was a morose commentary on the contemporary political dialogue,” he wrote on X. “The performance was a replay of the Democrats’ COVID playbook: fearmongering, misinformation, finger-pointing, and the weaponization of infectious disease fears for political gain.”
According to Kennedy, the announcement was “premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.” He claimed the Lancaster County Coroner Josh Parsons noted that it has “no record of any measles deaths. State law requires that all measles deaths be reported to the coroner.”
Kennedy went on to criticize Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) as having “shattered tradition and violated standard public health policy by refusing to share information with the County Health Department or CDC,” adding that he “got his headlines.”
Officials reported this week that two people died after contracting measles. Parsons wrote in response to the report, “It is important to know whether these two people died OF measles or WITH measles.”
“Deaths attributed to a communicable disease, under the law, are required to be reported to the Coroner’s office,” he explained. “The Coroner’s office indicates that it currently has ZERO reported cases where measles is the immediate cause of death.”
“They have one case where a person died WITH measles, but not FROM measles. Measles was definitely NOT the cause of death in that case.”
