Health and Medicine
PUBLISHED
For the first time in 35 years, Pennsylvania reports measles deaths. Two people, both reportedly unvaccinated, passed away in Lancaster County. The Pennsylvania Department of Health will not release further information on the cases to protect the individuals and their families.
In Pennsylvania alone, there have been, so far, 393 cases across 38 counties in 2026. As of August 20, there have been 2,777 confirmed cases of measles in the United States this year alone.
This is the worst outbreak in the country since 1991.
Measles is an extremely dangerous disease. One in five unvaccinated people who contract the virus end up in the hospital. Death happens in one to three of every 1,000 cases in children. The virus spreads through coughs and sneezes and can remain in the air for up to two hours.
Taking the MMR vaccine, administered in two doses, is the single best way to be protected against this very dangerous disease. It provides 97 percent lifetime protection.
“My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr Debra Bogen said in a statement.
“Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the illness. We want to ensure every Pennsylvanian has the information they need to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities.”
“As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles.”
“A victory for the extreme anti-vaxx activists”
The measles vaccine has been described as one of the greatest medical innovations ever created.
Before its widespread uptake, almost all children in the US contracted the disease, leading to about 400-500 deaths, 48,000 hospitalizations, and 1,000 cases of encephalitis – a serious inflammation of the brain – every single year.
Thanks to vaccination, the general public has forgotten just how dangerous and highly contagious measles really is. It is estimated that nine out of 10 unvaccinated people exposed to the virus will develop symptoms.
“In terms of infectious diseases that we have eliminated from the US through widespread vaccination, measles is at the greatest risk of re-emergence,” Dr Nathan Lo, an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases at Stanford University, told IFLScience.
Several countries around the world, including the US, had eliminated measles in the past. Due to lower rates of vaccination it has now returned, and just like in the UK and Canada, the States look set to be stripped of their official elimination status.
RFK Jr.'s role in the outbreak
Recently interviewed by CNN, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. deflected responsibility for the outbreak, blaming it on the community themselves and their reasons for not vaccinating.
In a newly resurfaced video from 2021, in the very Lancaster County where the two deaths occurred, Kennedy mocks the severity of measles, calling himself a “measles survivor” and saying that the disease is so horrible he had to “stay home and watch TV the whole week.”
Those 2 measles deaths are a victory for the extreme anti-vaxx activists; they worked so hard, for so many decades, peddling horrific disinformation, especially from MAHA's leader, RFK Jr, and their efforts paid off. RFK Jr specifically targeted Lancaster county (www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/w...).[image or embed]
— Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@gavinyamey.bsky.social) August 25, 2026 at 8:51 PM
He also claimed that the cure for measles is "chicken soup and vitamin A." The vitamin A claim was also repeated a few months ago as cases were surging across the States.
His tenure as health secretary in the Trump administration has been marked by a continuous push for antivax views. A recent leak of emails has shown the true extent of Kennedy’s ongoing war on US vaccine policy and the risk it poses to people.
Immediately following his appointment, Kennedy announced funding for a study into the debunked link between vaccines and autism, based on the work of disgraced former medical doctor Andrew Wakefield, which focused on the MMR vaccine.
In May 2025, Kennedy incorrectly claimed that the MMR vaccine contains “a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles," and he also publicly called for a journal to retract a study that found no link between aluminum in vaccines and chronic health problems. He stated that the study was “deceitful propaganda” and had “fatal deficiencies.”
More recently, President Trump signed an executive order to limit childhood vaccines and split the MMR jab, something endorsed also by the then acting director of the CDC, Jim O’Neill, a suggestion straight out of the Wakefield debunked work. There are practical reasons why the vaccine is not split up.
