<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) stated on September 16, 2026, that he will not accept federal aid for Pennsylvania's measles outbreak until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms four reported measles-related deaths in the state.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Shapiro made these remarks during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, following a public disagreement with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding the measles situation in Pennsylvania. Shapiro has accused Kennedy of being responsible for the outbreak's severity and alleged that he is instructing the CDC not to report the deaths.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We will be happy to accept additional support to deal with this crisis, but I’m not going to accept that until RFK does what is right and stops reaching down into his administration and directing the CDC staff not to acknowledge the pain and suffering of these four families in Pennsylvania, and acknowledge those deaths, deaths that have not only been certified as measles-associated by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, but also by three independent coroners here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Since August, Pennsylvania has reported four measles-related deaths: an 18-year-old on Tuesday, a 40-year-old woman over the weekend, and two infants last month, all of whom were unvaccinated.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Shapiro continued to assert that Kennedy is the reason the CDC has not reported the deaths, expressing surprise that President Donald Trump has allowed this situation to continue.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“RFK has reached down into his agency to take those names off the dashboard because it doesn’t meet his phony narrative,” Shapiro said. “Quite frankly, Kaitlan, I’m surprised that the president of the United States is letting him get away with this. I’m surprised that the president of the United States, confronted with the first measles outbreak in over 2 1/2 decades, knowing that RFK is stoking this, knowing that his health secretary tomorrow is scheduled to speak at a big anti-vax conference, knowing that he’s doing all that, people are getting sick. I’m surprised he’s letting him get away with it.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The conference mentioned by Shapiro is organized by the Children’s Health Defense, co-founded by Kennedy, which is associated with the anti-vaccination movement.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In response, Kennedy denied Shapiro’s allegations, stating that the governor is politicizing the outbreak. “Governor Shapiro has chosen to politicize this outbreak instead of implementing a unified public health response,” Kennedy said. “He continues to point the finger at me and the federal government and to malign the Amish while refusing the federal assistance that might help end the outbreak.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Shapiro further accused Kennedy of downplaying the seriousness of measles and recounted a phone conversation they had last month.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I believe it’s because it doesn’t meet his phony narrative,” Shapiro said on Wednesday. “Look, he doesn’t believe that measles is an issue. When I spoke to him over the phone, he wanted to lecture me about natural measles, and, in many ways, making excuses. He blamed Joe Biden for all of this. I mean, he is someone who is not, I think, connected or grounded in reality.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the state has reported 693 measles cases. There have been over 3,000 confirmed cases of measles in the United States in 2026. The recent deaths are the first attributed to the disease in Pennsylvania in 35 years, raising concerns about the potential loss of the U.S. elimination status for measles.</p>