The United States is grappling with a severe measles outbreak that has claimed multiple lives and triggered a bitter political dispute between state and federal officials.
In 2000, the United States declared measles eliminated. Yet since the start of this year, more than 3,290 confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease have been recorded across the country, with nearly 700 in Pennsylvania alone.
Mounting Death Toll
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania authorities announced the death of an 18-year-old man who was unvaccinated against measles. According to the county medical examiner, he died from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare neurological condition that can occur following a measles infection.
On Saturday, a 40-year-old woman was reported to have died from the disease, though the federal Department of Health has not yet officially acknowledged her death. She was also unvaccinated. Before them, two children too young to be vaccinated had died.
These deaths add to three others recorded in the United States in 2025, when the current outbreak began. Such a mortality level has not been reached since 1991. Crucially, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the proportion of confirmed cases this year has reached 95% of suspected cases, compared with 69% in 2024.
Political Blame Game
This ratio makes the ongoing dispute between Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Donald Trump’s Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., known for his vaccine-skeptical positions, even more difficult to comprehend.
On Tuesday, Shapiro accused Kennedy on X of fueling unjustified fears about the vaccine and of rendering these deaths invisible.
According to the governor, the secretary allegedly ordered the CDC not to count these four deaths “probably because they don’t fit with his misleading narrative.”
Kennedy has rejected these accusations, denouncing what he calls the “politicization” of these deaths. He has questioned, in some cases, their link to measles. In his response to the governor, the secretary criticized him for “maligning” the Amish community while refusing federal assistance.
Vaccination Coverage Declining
Although vaccination is mandatory in the United States, Americans in much of the country can circumvent the rule by citing religious or even philosophical reasons.
The latest vaccination coverage data show that coverage among children entering kindergarten in the United States has declined, falling from 95.2% during the 2019-2020 school year to 92.4% during the 2025-2026 school year. This exposes approximately 280,000 children to a risk of infection during the most recent school year.
