Two Die In Pennsylvania Of Measles Marking The First Deaths Of 2026
Last year, as decades of work by RFK Jr. to undermine vaccines with false links to deaths and autism culminated in his appointment to lead HHS, America saw the largest resurgence of measles cases in something like three decades. Three people died, including two children, all unvaccinated. Kennedy mostly ignored the outbreak from the beginning and has since only mustered the ability to say that people should get the MMR vaccine out of one side of his mouth while reminding everyone that he thinks vaccines are bad out of the other. Measles continued to roar into 2026, with Kennedy and HHS officials attempting to downplay case counts and deaths the entire time. We've already eclipsed 2025's record-breaking case count here in 2026 and we still have months to add to that total.
And now we have our first two deaths from measles in 2026, as well. Both occurred in Pennsylvania and, while health officials aren't releasing many details due to privacy concerns, it was noted that both of the deceased were unvaccinated for measles.
They are the first measles deaths reported in Pennsylvania in 35 years and the first deaths reported in the US in 2026. Last year,the US saw three measles deaths: two inotherwise-healthy but unvaccinated school-age children in Texasand one in an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Prior to those deaths, the US had not seena measles death since 2015, when a woman with underlying conditions became severely ill.
Citing privacy, health officials in Pennsylvania are not providing information on the people who died beyond that they were unvaccinated and were residents of Lancaster County. Officials noted that the deaths are among 393 confirmed cases reported this year across 28 counties in the state.
As we talked about recently, due directly to the decades of work Kennedy has taken to undermine vaccines, vaccination rates for school children have and are continuing to fall. These deaths, and the vast majority of the case counts, are completely needless. We have the solution to preventing them. The MMR vaccine is safe and effective for those that are not immunocompromised. There is no scientific reason to believe it causes autism. And, importantly, if 95% of us get vaccinated against measles, we achieve herd immunity which protects those that can't get vaccinated, as well as very young children who haven't been vaccinated yet.
And that last category is one that is likely to grow, thanks to the Trump administration's blatantly stupid executive order attempting to curtail how childhood vaccines are delivered and when. Not to mention the constant muddy waters Kennedy himself creates as to whether vaccines are good or bad, when they are so, what risks they carry, and so on. It is not an overreach to say that this administration, and Kennedy's decades of bullshit in particular, got these people killed.
Still, anti-vaccine rhetoric, misinformation, and disinformation have shaken confidence in the vaccine, driving down vaccination rates. Some of that damaging discourse has come from Trump administration officials, most notably ardent anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently the US health secretary. But President Trump has also contributed, falsely claiming in a White House press event two weeks ago that the MMR vaccine can be quite lethal." The MMR vaccine has never been linked to a death in a person with a competent immune system (it's not recommended in those who are immunocompromised).
One hundred percent correct. People look to their leaders for guidance on things like public health. Or they used to, at least. For some non-insignificant percentage of the country, they really do think Trump and Kennedy know what they're talking about when it comes to matters of medicine. They don't, of course. Not even close. But enough people are listening to them that it puts all of us in danger.
This has to end. Outbreaks of infectious diseases at the level of the measles tend to grow exponentially if not addressed. That's why we're already past last year's case count. The project for getting back to herd immunity and proper vaccination rates will not be a short one. It will take years.
And I very much doubt that we won't pass the death count here before the end of the year as well.