Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have clashed publicly after two unvaccinated residents in the state died from measles, the first such deaths in Pennsylvania in decades.
At a news conference Tuesday, Shapiro arrived late, saying he was on a phone call with Kennedy — a call he described as “blunt.”
Shapiro, a Democrat, said he “made very clear that [Kennedy’s] actions and the rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania.”
“There’s real-life consequences to spreading misinformation,” the governor added. “There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors, actual medical professionals, to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids.”
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Kennedy said Wednesday that Shapiro’s office was unwilling to provide workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with any details about the deaths. He also praised how the U.S. was handling the recent increase in measles cases.
Kennedy also went as far as questioning if the deaths in Lancaster County even happened.
“‘The press is all covering this [as] if those measles deaths actually happened, and nobody is doing any critical inquiry to find out,” he said. “We’re trying to find out whether those deaths actually happened, and we can’t figure that out.”
In Pennsylvania alone, 393 measles cases in 28 counties have been confirmed this year; 86 of those cases came in the past week. Shapiro said every confirmed case has occurred in people who are not fully vaccinated.
Kennedy also said Wednesday that Shapiro admitted to him during the Tuesday phone call that the drop in vaccinations took place while Joe Biden was president — a point Kennedy also made on X.
Shapiro denied this, also in a post on X, stating that Kennedy’s statements are “inaccurate and misleading and he is making claims that have been debunked repeatedly by actual scientists and doctors.”
“Kennedy’s actions to dismantle public health agencies and his language that undermines confidence in vetted medical guidance are contributing to these kinds of outbreaks,” Shapiro wrote. “Just a few years ago, Secretary Kennedy was in Lancaster downplaying the severity of measles and saying that the cure was ‘chicken soup and vitamin A.’”
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