The New York Times is reporting that the CDC Director, Dr. Erica Schwartz, ordered her underlings to challenge two measles deaths reported by Pennsylvania. One of the dead was a newborn whose mother was infected with measles and who tested positive for measles. The immediate cause of the newborn’s death was a ruptured spleen, but the Times reported that infection can lead to an enlarged spleen which can be susceptible to rupture.
The Times described the questioning of a state’s health data as “highly unusual.” Typically, the CDC accepts data shared by states. The CDC, however, didn’t merely challenge the reports. It went further, announcing that the two Pennsylvania measles deaths will not be included in this week’s measles outbreak update, which is posted on the CDC’s website. If you’re curious, here’s a link to the August 30, 2026 update.
There is no question that the recent measles outbreaks have become fodder for political fights. Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro, fired the first salvo in this latest skirmish by holding a press conference in which he blamed the Administration for promoting vaccination hesitancy. A political response from the Administration was to be expected.
But like so many Administration responses to criticism, this one goes nuclear right out of the gate. The Administration could have cast doubt on the reports, criticized Governor Shapiro for politicizing the death of a newborn, and noted that, although it would include the deaths in the CDC measles outbreak update, those deaths would be excluded if subsequent investigation revealed that they were not attributable to measles. Instead, the Administration has simply erased those people–two dead people. Remember Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook deniers?
This isn’t what reasonable public officials do. But when we are talking about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Trump Administration, we can’t talk about what’s reasonable or not.
There was some reason, however, to hope that Dr. Schwartz–the CDC Director–could be held to some standard short of “they’re trying to kill us all.” And maybe she’s just the messenger, but I don’t see why we should give her the benefit of the doubt.