Kennedy and his allies have a history of downplaying vaccine-preventable deaths.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Credit: Getty | Stefani Reynolds
In the wake of news on Tuesday that two people in Pennsylvania died from measles, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been posting a slew of anti-vaccine rhetoric and misinformation on social media—marking a resurgence of his old ways as a fervent opponent of lifesaving immunizations.
The deaths are the first measles-linked fatalities in Pennsylvania in 35 years and are the first US measles deaths reported in 2026. They occurred amid an explosive outbreak in the state that has reached nearly 400 confirmed cases, as well as an ongoing nationwide surge for the vaccine-preventable disease. The US has tallied nearly 2,800 cases so far this year, the highest total since 1991.
Pennsylvania health officials initially declined to provide details about the deaths, only reporting that they were in unvaccinated people from Lancaster County. However, news broke Wednesday that one of the deaths occurred in a newborn baby. That heart-wrenching news was swiftly entangled in the anti-vaccine misinformation Kennedy was spewing online.
On Tuesday, as news of the two deaths was breaking, Kennedy took to his personal X account to rail against the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and posted a link to The HighWire, a hardline anti-vaccine and conspiracy site run by Del Bigtree, a prominent anti-vaccine propagandist and Kennedy ally.
Kennedy’s post also assailed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has criticized Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric and activism. Kennedy went on to blame national declines in vaccination rates on the Biden administration.
On Wednesday, as news broke that one of the deaths in Pennsylvania was in a newborn, Kennedy turned to his official X account as US health secretary to allege that “the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.” He cited a tweet from Josh Parsons, a Republican commissioner of Lancaster County, who claimed there had been “zero measles deaths” reported in the county. The claims appear to be another old play from the anti-vaccine handbook.
Death misinformation
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported later on Wednesday that the Lancaster County Coroner publicly stated that a newborn who had tested positive for measles had died shortly after birth of a ruptured spleen. The coroner, Stephen Diamantoni, said that a pathologist “did not feel it was related to measles.” He noted that he did not know when the baby died or whether the baby’s mother was infected with measles, and had not been in touch with state health officials.
Paul Offit, a vaccine and pediatric infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, clarified that the measles virus can be passed on in the womb or shortly after birth. The virus can cause the spleen to enlarge and rupture at birth. Offit urged that if measles wasn’t the cause of the baby’s ruptured spleen, the coroner should provide an alternative explanation.
Unlike Diamantoni, Offit said he had been in touch with state officials regarding the deaths and, based on the information he had received, he concluded that “these patients would not have died were it not for measles.”
This is far from the first time that Kennedy and his allies have attempted to downplay and spread misinformation about deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Anti-vaccine advocates have a well-established history of trying to overwhelm fact-based reporting with falsehoods and doubt. One common strategy is to exploit the sometimes-difficult task of assigning a specific cause of death, blaming associated complications for the death rather than the infection itself—such as blaming a mysteriously ruptured spleen instead of the measles infection that likely led to its rupture.
In the deadly measles outbreak in Texas last year, Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advisor, Robert Malone, rushed to announce that a school-age child had died from measles only to deny that measles was the cause, blaming the death instead on pre-existing conditions and a misdiagnosis. The treating doctors refuted the claims, saying the child was otherwise healthy and reported the death as being from “measles pulmonary failure.”
Kennedy, meanwhile, falsely blamed the measles outbreak and its severe cases on the children’s poor diets and lack of exercise —despite the outbreak largely spreading within a community of Mennonites, who are generally known for having healthy lifestyles.
