Latest: Kennedy acknowledges one death
WASHINGTON — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged Friday that measles caused the death of one infant in Pennsylvania, citing information he said came from the Lancaster County coroner. He continues to dispute the state's classification of a second infant death.
Kennedy's public statement narrows the dispute but does not resolve the national count. Pennsylvania's Department of Health continues to report two measles-associated deaths, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's current federal data still reflect zero measles deaths in 2026.
Reuters reported Kennedy's acknowledgment at 5:29 p.m. Pacific time Friday. The Lancaster County coroner's office did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, so the account of the coroner's latest position is attributed to Kennedy rather than presented as a separately obtained statement from the office.
Latest: the national count reaches 3,134
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that the United States has recorded 3,134 confirmed measles cases in 2026, the country's highest annual total in more than 35 years. The count reflects reports received through noon September 3 and remains preliminary.
CDC says 3,118 cases came from 47 U.S. jurisdictions and 16 involved international visitors. The total is 845 higher than the 2,289 confirmed cases recorded during all of 2025; it does not mean every state or community has an active outbreak.
The agency reports 38 outbreaks this year and says 2,969 cases, or 95%, are outbreak-associated. CDC defines an outbreak as three or more related cases and notes that state health departments may have more current local information than the weekly federal count.
Hospitalization and vaccination figures require precision
Reuters, citing the CDC update, reports 248 measles-related hospitalizations in 2026, equal to 8% of confirmed cases. Hospitalization can include isolation as well as treatment of complications, so the figure should not be read as a count of only severe or intensive-care cases.
About 94% of cases involved people classified as unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. CDC combines those categories for its weekly public dashboard, which means the figure cannot establish how many lacked vaccination and how many lacked obtainable records.
National kindergarten MMR coverage fell from 95.2% in the 2019–20 school year to 92.4% in 2025–26, leaving an estimated 280,000 kindergartners at risk, according to CDC. The agency says two MMR doses are 97% effective at preventing measles and one dose is 93% effective; individual medical questions should be directed to a qualified healthcare provider.
The reported intervention and Kennedy's public position
WASHINGTON — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remove two Pennsylvania measles-associated deaths from the agency's national tally, according to three sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Reuters reported Thursday that CDC staff had initially accepted Pennsylvania's characterization of the deaths as linked to measles. The news organization said Director Erica Schwartz then implemented Kennedy's request without objection after he questioned whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths.
The direction attributed to Kennedy remains a Reuters report based on unnamed sources, not an instruction independently confirmed in a public order or email. Kennedy has now publicly stated that one death was caused by measles, while saying federal statisticians still need to receive and review the relevant records before changing the national tally.
The omission itself is publicly verifiable
The CDC's own measles page currently excludes both Pennsylvania deaths. Its September 4 note says the National Center for Health Statistics does not currently have any 2026 death records identifying measles as the underlying cause.
CDC also says it is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to develop a standardized definition for deaths due to measles and will update its reporting when more information and relevant reviews are completed. The page does not provide a completion date.
Pennsylvania's Department of Health announced the deaths on August 25, describing both people as unvaccinated Lancaster County residents and calling them measles-associated. The state did not identify the people or publish their medical files, citing privacy protections.
What remains disputed about the two deaths
The existence of two deaths reported by Pennsylvania is not the same question as whether measles caused each death. The state uses the term measles-associated when laboratory or epidemiological evidence of infection is present, even when a medical certifier or coroner may not list measles as the immediate cause.
Kennedy said the infant whose death he now recognizes as caused by measles also had Amish lethal microcephaly, a severe congenital condition. That underlying condition does not erase his acknowledgment of measles as the cause, and this report is not independently interpreting private medical records.
In the death Kennedy continues to dispute, public reporting says a newborn tested positive for measles and died from internal bleeding involving a ruptured spleen. Pennsylvania maintains that the death was measles-associated, while the coroner has rejected describing measles as its cause. The available record does not justify stating that measles definitively caused both deaths—or that either death was fabricated.
Why the federal tally matters
CDC reports 3,134 confirmed measles cases as of September 3, including 16 among international visitors. Ninety-five percent of this year's cases are associated with outbreaks, and national kindergarten MMR coverage has fallen below the 95% level the agency cites for community protection.
State and local health departments lead measles investigations and notify CDC of cases, according to the agency's published methodology. A federal decision to reject or delay a state's death classification can shape the national picture used by doctors, policymakers and the public, even while causation remains under review.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association and a former Maryland health secretary, told Reuters it was unheard of for CDC to publicly question state and local determinations in this manner. His characterization is an expert assessment, not an official legal finding.
Read the source: CDC: Measles vaccination, safety and effectiveness ↗
Confirmed facts, reported allegations and unanswered questions
Confirmed: Kennedy now acknowledges that measles caused one infant's death; Pennsylvania reports two measles-associated deaths; CDC excludes both from its current national total; and CDC is developing a standardized death definition with state and territorial epidemiologists.
Reported but not independently documented: Reuters says Kennedy directed Schwartz to remove both deaths after CDC staff had accepted Pennsylvania's classification. No public directive or email documenting that instruction has been released.
Still unresolved: when or whether CDC will count the death Kennedy now acknowledges, whether the second death will meet the federal definition, what records federal statisticians still require and whether written documentation of the reported intervention will be released.
What’s the Scoop With Broach will update this report when CDC, HHS, Pennsylvania or identified investigators release additional evidence. Public-health data must be transparent enough to withstand political pressure, but uncertainty in a cause-of-death determination must also be reported honestly rather than erased or overstated.
The accompanying image is an authentic public-domain CDC laboratory micrograph of the measles virus. It does not show either Pennsylvania death, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Erica Schwartz or the federal decision-making described in this report.
Read the source: Wikimedia Commons: Public-domain CDC measles-virus micrograph ↗
Sources and further reading
Reuters: Kennedy acknowledges one Pennsylvania measles death while disputing the second ↗
Reuters: U.S. measles count reaches 3,134, the highest annual total in more than 35 years ↗
Reuters: Three sources say Kennedy directed the CDC to exclude the Pennsylvania deaths ↗
CDC: Current national measles count and note excluding the two Pennsylvania deaths ↗
Pennsylvania Department of Health: August 25 confirmation of two measles-associated deaths ↗
FactCheck.org: Known facts, disputed causation and information gaps in the two deaths ↗
CDC: Measles vaccination, safety and effectiveness ↗
Wikimedia Commons: Public-domain CDC measles-virus micrograph ↗