September 17, 2026
Matthew Dae Smith; Daniella Heminghaus/USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
Gov. Josh Shapiro, right, says Pennsylvania will not accept any more federal funding to combat its measles outbreak until HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledges the state's four measles-associated deaths.
Pennsylvania will not accept further federal funding to fight measles until Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledges the state's four measles-associated deaths.
"We will be happy to accept additional support to deal with this crisis," Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNN Wednesday. "But I'm not going to accept that until RFK does what is right and stops reaching down into his administration and directing the CDC staff not to acknowledge the pain and suffering of these four families in Pennsylvania, and acknowledge those deaths, deaths that have not only been certified as measles-associated by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, but also by three independent coroners here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
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The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported the state's first two measles-associated deaths in 35 years, both infants from Lancaster County, on Aug. 25. Health officials since have confirmed two more deaths, a 40-year-old woman from Jefferson County, and an 18-year-old from Mifflin County.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Thursday, was still not listing the deaths on its website.
"The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause," the website says.
"RFK has reached down into his agency to take those names off the dashboard, because it doesn't meet his phony narrative," Shapiro told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "Quite frankly, Kaitlan, I'm surprised that the president of the United States is letting him get away with this."
As of Thursday, Pennsylvania had 731 confirmed measles cases, with 117 of those cases reported in the last seven days. None of the infected people were vaccinated, according to the state health department.
The majority of Pennsylvania's measles cases this year have been in Lancaster County. In Southeastern Pennsylvania, there have been 67 cases in Chester County and three cases in Montgomery County.
The CDC has reported 3,296 measles cases in the United States this year, up from 2,289 in 2025. Three people died from measles in 2025, the country's first measles deaths in 10 years. This year, 95% of measles cases have been in unvaccinated people.
After a series of U.S. outbreaks in the 1990s that led to 100 measles deaths, there was a major vaccination push across the country that virtually eliminated the disease by 2000. The United States lost its measles elimination status last year.
Shapiro told CNN that Kennedy is responsible for declining vaccination rates and increased outbreaks across the country.
"He doesn't believe that measles is an issue," Shapiro said.
Kennedy has dismissed such criticism, telling CNN earlier this summer that almost all of the measles outbreaks have been in religious communities that "just don't vaccinate."
Last month, the New York Times reported that Kennedy stoked vaccine fears in Lancaster County years before he became the nation's health secretary by maligning public health agencies and spreading misinformation.
"Those agencies are going to do everything in their power to make the Amish vaccinate, because they cannot stand the fact that you are healthy," Kennedy told people at an Amish county fair in Lancaster five years ago.
Kennedy also told the audience that the "cure for measles is chicken soup and vitamin A."
