Measles Outbreaks and CDC Update: More Disasters in the U.S. as Governors Report Deaths
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Measles outbreaks around the country are already a disaster, but more bad news arrived on Tuesday. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced that two measles-associated deaths had occurred in Lancaster County. “These mark the first deaths related to measles within the Commonwealth in 35 years,” an accompanying statement declared. Both individuals were said to have been unvaccinated, but the state Health Department declined to release any other information about the cases, citing privacy concerns.
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HuffPostHealth and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday went as far as to suggest that the two measles deaths reported in Pennsylvania earlier this week may “have been altogether fabricated” by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s team.
The Guardian USAnti-vaccine activists are trying to track down the families of two people, including at least one newborn, who died after contracting measles in Pennsylvania, as governor Josh Shapiro tangles with Robert F Kennedy Jr over his “inaccurate and misleading claims”.
ABC NewsHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has expressed doubts about the two deaths. Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, and federal health officials --including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- are publicly sparring over the announcement of two measles-associated deaths amid the ongoing outbreak in the state.
Associated PressPennsylvania officials this week reported that two unvaccinated residents died after being infected with measles, with Gov. Josh Shapiro stressing that vaccinations could have averted the deaths.
BreitbartCome on, am I really out on a limb here? Shapiro and his health authorities also made a big deal of the fact that the two people who allegedly died FROM measles were unvaccinated.
The HillRFK Jr. questions measles deaths in Pennsylvania Click in for more news from The Hill {beacon} Healthcare Healthcare   The Big Story  RFK Jr. seizes on Shapiro’s measles statements Top Trump administration health officials are seizing on vague information from Pennsylvania to openly question the circumstances of two deaths that state health authorities attributed to measles.  Natasha Kaiser Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D)…
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a Thursday post on X that it was “working to determine what actually occurred”, including “whether the two reported deaths were caused by measles”. The HHS did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about whether Kennedy recommends the vaccine or whether the newly confirmed CDC director, Erica Schwartz, would make a statement about the outbreak and the need for vaccination.
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ABC NewsThe CDC is an agency under the HHS, which Kennedy runs. "We appreciate Secretary Kennedy’s efforts to clarify conflicting information from Pennsylvania officials about whether the two reported deaths were caused by measles," the CDC statement said. "CDC is working to determine what actually occurred. These discrepancies raise important questions, particularly because the Governor’s Office has not provided CDC with information relevant to the outbreak and has declined our offers of assistance."
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The challenges of tallying measles deaths The U.S. eliminated the domestic spread of measles in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, but they have fallen in recent years to below the 95% coverage needed to prevent outbreaks. In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status.
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The Guardian USMeasles deaths have become rare in the US because of vaccination, but between one and three people usually die with every 1,000 infections. The US is now experiencing its worst outbreak of measles in three decades.
6 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 The Guardian US Brian Hooker at Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization that until recently was led by Kennedy, said in a recent video that the organization is “trying to get boots on the ground” and “do outreach” in Pennsylvania.
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02 Associated Press Recent trends are driving conversations among health officials about how to better track the consequences of a surging problem.
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03 The Atlantic As a pathologist, I am used to fielding questions about how and why people die. Such calls were particularly frequent during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when many people doubted COVID-19’s official death toll. Some alleged that anyone who merely happened to die while infected—in a car crash, let’s say, or from cancer—was being counted in official numbers. (In fact, government statistics were underestimating the number of Americans who were dying from COVID.) Admittedly, determining why someone died is in many cases difficult for experts such as myself. The body is a frustratingly complex machine. A mild illness can lead to a cascade of severe bodily dysfunction; disparate diseases may all crop up simultaneously.
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04 ABC News The ensuing insults launched between Shapiro and Kennedy happened both on social media and during separate press conferences this week.
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05 Breitbart The Lancaster County coroner has ruled that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Liar) is a shamelessly dishonest demagogue responsible for further undermining public confidence in “The Science…”
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06 HuffPost Dr. Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, contested the validity of the claims made by Kennedy without naming the Trump official.
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Sources (7)
- huffpost
- abc
- ap
- breitbart
- thehill
- atlantic
- guardian