Two Unvaccinated Pennsylvanians Die of Measles — the First U.S. Measles Deaths of 2026 and the State's First in 35 Years — and the Health Secretary Says the Outbreak Is Under Control and Blames the Lockdowns
On August 25, 2026 the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed that two unvaccinated people in Lancaster County had died of measles. They are the first measles-associated deaths reported anywhere in the United States in 2026 and the first in Pennsylvania since 1991. The state has recorded 393 cases across 28 counties this year — its worst measles year since 1992 — with roughly half of them in Lancaster County and about one in five patients hospitalized. The deaths landed on a health secretary who built his public career on vaccine skepticism. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Gov. Josh Shapiro to offer federal staff for the outbreak response; Shapiro turned the offer down and told him the administration's rhetoric was itself part of the problem. A day later, at a school-nutrition conference, Kennedy said the United States is "doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak" and attributed the surge to COVID-era lockdowns rather than to falling vaccination rates. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) called for Kennedy to resign or be fired. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) — a physician who chairs the Senate health committee and who voted to confirm Kennedy — did not call for his removal but wrote that "no one needs to die from measles in 2026" and blamed misinformation and misguided policy. The deaths come two weeks after Trump signed an executive order cutting the childhood vaccine schedule and splitting the MMR shot into three separate doses, an order Cassidy had already called "a stupid thing to do."
“Governor Shapiro has chosen to politicize this outbreak instead of implementing a unified public health response. He continues to point the finger at me and the federal government.”