An Outbreak Concentrated in One County
Roughly half of Pennsylvania's cases this year have been in Lancaster County, and the outbreak's toll is not limited to the two deaths: about 20 percent of cases statewide have required hospitalization. State health officials said the two who died were adults, not children, and declined to release further details.
Not one confirmed case in Pennsylvania this year has been in a person with both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine, Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen said. "As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles," she said, adding that people have forgotten how serious the disease can be "especially for the very young, the pregnant and the very old."
A Political Collision
The deaths landed in the middle of the national fight over vaccine policy. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has pushed sweeping changes to federal vaccine recommendations while national vaccination rates fall, called Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday to offer federal staff. Shapiro declined, saying the state could manage, and said he told Kennedy directly that his vaccine disinformation was having repercussions.
"There's real-life consequences to spreading misinformation," Shapiro said. "It leaves people less healthy and less safe, and it leaves parents in a position where it's harder for us to do our jobs to protect our children." In 2021, before taking office, Kennedy had visited Lancaster County as head of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, where he made light of his own childhood measles case.
A Resurgence With No Sign of Slowing
The US has now recorded more than 2,700 measles cases in 2026, the most since 1991 and a second consecutive record year. More cases have been logged in the past year and a half than in the previous 25 years combined, and experts expect the country to soon lose its WHO measles elimination status, held since 2000. Last year brought the first US measles deaths in decades, including two unvaccinated children in Texas.
The medicine on this is not in dispute. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97 percent effective, and Pennsylvania is recommending early or catch-up doses for anyone not fully protected, starting as young as 6 months. "These deaths are entirely preventable," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who died in the Pennsylvania measles outbreak?
- Two unvaccinated adults from Lancaster County. Officials have not released further details. They are the first US measles deaths of 2026 and Pennsylvania's first in 35 years.
- How big is the Pennsylvania outbreak?
- 393 confirmed cases across 28 counties, about half in Lancaster County. Roughly 20 percent of cases have required hospitalization, and none have been in people with both MMR doses.
- What are the symptoms of measles?
- Fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes, followed a few days later by a rash that starts on the head and spreads downward. Symptoms can appear seven to 21 days after exposure, and the virus stays infectious in the air for up to two hours.
- How effective is the MMR vaccine?
- Two doses are 97 percent effective against measles. Pennsylvania recommends catch-up doses for anyone not fully protected, starting as young as 6 months.
