[UPDATE] CDC sends an outbreak investigator to Pennsylvania as state measles cases reach 1,222
It is the CDC's first in-person help to the state since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s August feud with Josh Shapiro (Gov-D Pennsylvania).
The CDC is sending one Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, one of its trained outbreak investigators, to Pennsylvania. The state's outbreak has reached at least 1,222 confirmed cases and 225 hospitalizations this year. Pennsylvania has reported six measles deaths, and the CDC acknowledges two of them.
PREVIOUSLY
On Oct. 13, Pennsylvania reported its sixth measles death in under two months as its outbreak, the nation's worst, reached 1,136 cases. It was the first U.S. outbreak to pass 1,000 cases since 1991.
Where Pennsylvania's kindergarten measles vaccination falls below the 95% target:
- Lancaster County: 87.6% of kindergartners have two MMR doses, leaving 632 without documented protection (2025-26 state school survey)
- Mifflin County: 89.0% of kindergartners, and 77.6% of seventh graders
- Statewide: 93.2% of kindergartners, down from 93.7% the year before