It’s very gross for this to be any sort of “I told you so” opening to this post, but the measles outbreak in America continues to get worse, as predicted. While last years case counts and deaths from the disease, which had been vaccinated to the point of eradication back in 2000, were a record-breaking shitshow, 2026’s case and death counts have already outpaced it significantly. There are more than double the total cases of measles already compared with last year, and triple as many deaths. Through it all, RFK Jr. and his HHS agency have battled the outbreak through inaction and obfuscation of data.
The worst of the outbreaks has been in Pennsylvania this year. Unfortunately, highly infectious diseases don’t respect state borders. Measles is already spilling out into neighboring states. Weeks ago, New York State declared a state of emergency due to measles infections. And, now, the state has sadly reported its first fatality from measles.
It’s the first known measles-associated death in the state in over 30 years, health officials said.
“We are deeply saddened by the death of a child in Lewis County associated with the ongoing measles outbreak,” the New York State Department of Health and Lewis County Public Health said in a joint statement on Monday. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the child’s family and loved ones and ask that their privacy be respected during this difficult time.”
No additional information on the case was released.
We don’t have any more information on the specific case or victim beyond that. But we do know that it was another child that died. Children have represented the overwhelming percentage of case counts and fatalities thus far. We also know that this death needn’t have happened. Until RFK Jr. got into government, America had not had a measles fatality recorded in decades. Through vaccination programs and the resulting herd immunity, even those medically unable to get vaccinated against measles were protected. The anti-vaxxer movement undid all of that, of course, and the avatar for that movement is Kennedy.
A major concern among health professionals right now is measles cases occurring during pregnancy, given how dangerous it can be for both the person pregnant and the fetus upon birth. The CDC reportedly wanted to issue an informational alert to health professionals about the dangers of such cases and how to handle them. Unfortunately, it seems the powers running those government health agencies would prefer to hide that information from the public.
Days before the seventh preventable measles death, The Washington Post reported on Kennedy’s latest push to thwart public health efforts: Career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—which is under Kennedy’s control—were blocked from publishing an urgent health alert to clinicians regarding the risk and management of measles cases during pregnancy.
Given the previous success of vaccines and vaccination campaigns, many clinicians have never seen such cases in their careers. But measles infections during pregnancy pose severe, life-threatening risks to both pregnant people and fetuses. As such, CDC scientists wanted to issue an informational advisory through the CDC’s Health Alert Network.
But the CDC Director’s Office declined to provide the required approval for the alert, sources told the Post. The scientists have since moved to trying to publish the information in the CDC’s publication, The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). But the peer-review process for the publication is longer than that of an advisory. Further, vaccine-related studies already approved for publication in MMWR have been suspiciously delayed, the Post reported.
Here again we see sociopathic behavior from Kennedy and its detrimental impact on the health of Americans. Kennedy doesn’t want government studies on vaccine related information because, obviously, those studies don’t align with Kennedy’s preferred conspiracy theories about vaccines. Likewise, he doesn’t want alerts going out to medical professionals about measles during pregnancy because either they put the lie to Kennedy’s claim that he has this whole measles thing under control, because the advice given in those alerts would be to encourage more vaccination, or both.
There is no explanation for why informational alerts about an ongoing health crisis that were otherwise approved for publication should be blocked by someone with no medical degrees or background. This is hiding information from the public, and from doctors. It’s evil.
People are getting sick and dying, most of them children. That Kennedy is prioritizing his own ego and pet projects over those lives isn’t surprising, but it is horrifying. And it must be stopped.
