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2 People Dead In Pennsylvania From Measles—First U.S. Deaths This Year

Topline

Two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania, health authorities confirmed on Tuesday, marking the first deaths tied to the infectious disease in the state in 35 years.

Key Facts

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed both “measles-associated deaths” happened in Lancaster County and the individuals were unvaccinated, but their ages and identities were not released.

In a statement on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen said measles was “largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades,” and stressed that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is “safe and provides the best protection we have” against the disease.

Pennsylvania is facing a larger measles outbreak with 393 confirmed cases in 28 counties, according to health authorities.

BIG NUMBER

2,777. That’s how many measles cases have been reported in the U.S. this year, across 47 states, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles cases are at a 35-year high—over two decades after the disease was declared essentially eliminated from the country in 2000.

Surprising Fact

Lancaster County is the center of the measles outbreak in Pennsylvania and has by far the largest amount of confirmed cases so far. Lancaster County has recorded 180 cases in 2026, according to the outbreak tracker published by Johns Hopkins University last updated on Tuesday—a huge jump from only one confirmed case in 2025. However, health authorities in Pennsylvania have also seen success in administering the MMR vaccine since the outbreak began in April. In July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said it has administered over 600 doses of the vaccine at pop-up clinics in Lancaster County since April—up from only 179 it administered for the entirety of 2025.

News Peg

Although measles cases have been rising in recent years, deaths from the disease are still relatively rare. The two deaths in Lancaster County are the first two deaths related to measles in the United States this year. There were only three measles-related deaths in the U.S. in 2025, according to the CDC’s data.

Key Background

The deaths come two weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at significantly cutting back the vaccine guidelines for children in the U.S. Included in this order were recommendations to administer the MMR vaccine as “three separate single-disease shots.” There is no given reasoning for administering the vaccine in this way, and experts told Reuters it could take Merck, the manufacturer of the vaccine, up to 10 years to be able to manufacture separate shots. The company stopped making single-disease vaccines in 2008. At an event in the Oval Office, Trump claimed the vaccine could be “quite lethal” but did not provide any evidence for this claim. “What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way, and I say, ‘Well, let’s say there’s a 5% chance of it, let’s split it up,’” he told reporters when pressed about it. When asked about the MMR vaccine on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, contradicted the president. “No, the MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine, and it is offered in other countries.” Oz admitted.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, said earlier this month. “A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97% of the cases. People should get vaccinated.”