The move comes after anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got into a public spat with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro over Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric. Kennedy then shared measles misinformation on social media amid news of the deaths, then suggested without evidence that the state may have “fabricated” the deaths and that the governor announced them with “giddy delight.”
State health officials initially refused to release information about the two people who died, including their ages, citing privacy concerns. But news has since trickled out that one of the people who died was a newborn and, according to reporting Tuesday by the Times, the other was a child. Both were unvaccinated and from Lancaster County. Outside medical experts have criticized the lack of information provided from health officials, leaving more space for doubt and misinformation.
What we know about the deaths
Controversy about the deaths flared after Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni, a Republican first elected coroner in 2007, claimed that a pathologist determined that the newborn died of a ruptured spleen and didn’t believe measles played a role. The baby was born infected with the virus, according to testing, and had evidence of a measles infection in lung tissue. The newborn’s mother was severely ill from measles at the time of birth, according to reporting from The Atlantic, which spoke with the baby’s parents amid the uproar.
The parents, who are Amish, were not aware that their baby’s death was in the national news and a source of contention. They believed without question that their baby died of measles. The mother said she contracted the virus amid the ongoing local outbreak and after several of her other children had fallen ill. She became so ill she couldn’t speak above a whisper and “didn’t have a single piece of energy” as she went into labor. The baby was born with a pulse, but was not breathing. The baby, a boy, was declared dead less than a half-hour later, after paramedics had been called and attempted to give the newborn oxygen and chest compressions, the parents said.