The new director of the CDC ordered agency officials to exclude two measles deaths reported by Pennsylvania from the national tally, breaking from the agency’s longstanding practice of accepting states’ death determinations.
Erica Schwartz, MD, who took over the CDC in August, directed staff to add a statement to the agency’s measles dashboard questioning the deaths, according to current and former officials who spoke anonymously to The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The dashboard said this week’s update “will not include the two measles-associated deaths reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health on Aug. 25″ while the CDC reviews the circumstances, adding that available information “does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths.”
State health officials — not the CDC — typically determine and report measles cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
The two unvaccinated Lancaster County, Pa., residents who died included a newborn whose mother was infected with measles. The infant tested positive for the virus but died of a ruptured spleen, said county Coroner Stephen Diamantoni, MD, who said his office’s pathologist found the spleen was “neither enlarged nor inflamed” and that measles was not a factor.
Pennsylvania’s health department classifies both deaths as “measles-associated,” a term it uses when laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present even if the virus is not deemed the immediate cause of death. Measles can inflame the spleen, making it more fragile and prone to rupture, the department said. Details of the second death have not been released.
The episode has pulled the CDC into a political fight between HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, over the cause of the deaths. Mr. Kennedy accused the governor of “manipulating” the truth, while Mr. Shapiro has blamed the outbreak on the secretary’s vaccine policies and rhetoric.
Some public health experts warned the move could deepen a rift between states and the federal government. Having the CDC question a state’s data “will only lead to a further erosion of what is a really critical partnership,” Anne Zink, MD, a Yale University public health expert and former chief medical officer for Alaska, told the Times.
U.S. measles cases reached 2,903 across 45 states as of Aug. 30, 2026 — already above 2025’s full-year total of 2,289.
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