The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still secretly counting two measles deaths that were deleted from the agency's public measles data—a deletion that occurred at the direct request of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to two reports released today.

Early today, Reuters reported that Kennedy instructed new CDC director Erica Schwartz to delete the two deaths from the agency's website. CDC staff had reportedly already reviewed information about the deaths and accepted the characterization that they were measles-related. Still, Schwartz deleted the deaths without objection, insiders told Reuters. According to previous reporting, the two deaths were added and then removed from the CDC's website within hours on August 30.

The deaths were of a newborn and a child, and they were reported last week by health officials in Pennsylvania. The state's ongoing measles outbreak has sickened 540 so far, including 119 just in the last week.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is excluding two measles deaths reported by Pennsylvania health officials last week from its latest update of national measles data. The move publicly challenges the accuracy of the state's death determinations in an extraordinary move that breaks precedent that states are the arbiters of case and death determinations, not the CDC.

The New York Times reported Monday that the CDC's new director, Erica Schwartz, is behind the decision. Schwartz—less than a month into the job—reportedly ordered CDC staff to add an unusual statement onto the CDC's website for measles surveillance data. The statement notes that the update will not include the deaths reported by Pennsylvania and continues: "At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles."

The Washington Post reported Monday that the CDC had actually changed the information provided on that page multiple times over the weekend. On August 29 at 2:33 pm ET, the website listed the total measles deaths for 2026 as "0" in a chart. On August 30 at 12:09 pm ET, the chart was updated to list the total deaths for 2026 as "2." There was also a note underneath the chart that read: "Health departments make determinations about measles-associated deaths and share relevant information with CDC." By 3:23 pm ET on August 30, the chart was changed again to delete the two deaths, replacing them with an asterisk as a reference to the unusual statement about the deaths not being included. The asterisk and statement remain as of Tuesday.

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Two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania, state health officials confirmed Tuesday.

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 in otherwise-healthy but unvaccinated school-age children in Texas and one in an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Prior to those deaths, the US had not seen a 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.

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