Pennsylvania Reports First Two Measles Deaths in 35 Years, But County Coroner Disputes Cause

Pennsylvania's Department of Health announced on August 25 that two Lancaster County residents died from causes related to measles, the state's first measles deaths in 35 years, according to the department's statement reported by the Epoch Times.

Both were unvaccinated. The department declined to release ages, exact causes, or other identifying details, citing patient confidentiality, according to Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen, who spoke at a briefing in Lancaster on August 25.

"Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don't fully understand the potential severity of the illness," Bogen said in the health department's statement, as reported by Fox News.

But the story has a wrinkle the state hasn't resolved. Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons posted on X that the county coroner told him no deaths have occurred in which measles was the "immediate cause of death," according to the Epoch Times. Parsons wrote that "it is important to know whether these two people died OF measles or WITH measles," and said "it appears at least on the surface that incorrect information was provided to the public today."

Pennsylvania's health department has not responded publicly to Parsons's claim as of this writing. That leaves an open question: were these deaths caused by measles, or did the virus worsen other existing conditions in people who happened to also test positive? The department's own statement only says the deaths were "related to" measles, not that measles was the cause. Until the state or the coroner's office clarifies, that distinction matters for anyone trying to gauge the real severity of this outbreak.

Three people died with measles in 2025, according to the CDC, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said medical records showed those patients died from unrelated conditions worsened by the virus, per the Epoch Times.

Pennsylvania has confirmed 393 measles cases across 28 counties so far in 2026, according to the state health department, cited by Fox News. Nationally, the CDC reported 2,566 confirmed cases as of last week, according to CIDRAP, already surpassing last year's total of 2,289 cases.

The Price Tag Is Climbing Fast

A Johns Hopkins-led team, publishing in the journal Vaccine, estimated the average cost of containing a single measles case at $58,600 once you include the public health response, according to CIDRAP. Multiply that by 2025's 2,289 confirmed cases and you get $134 million. This year's larger outbreak, at 2,566 cases and rising, has already cost more than $150 million by that math.

The Washington Post detailed one real example: a 10-case cluster near Denver that ran up nearly $500,000 in costs and consumed 6,785 hours of labor. Investigators traced exposures across grocery stores, a PetSmart, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, an airport, a church and multiple schools. Ninety-one people ended up quarantined, and infected or quarantined students missed a combined 512 school days.

The Johns Hopkins researchers found fixed costs of launching a public health response run about $297,747 before you even count the incremental cost of each new case, roughly $16,300 apiece. Their conclusion, per CIDRAP: these outbreaks are "largely preventable" through vaccination and better system-level preparedness, and low uptake is driving the spread.

Virginia's Outbreak Slows, School Year Brings New Risk

In Virginia, the Daily Signal reported 177 cases statewide as of August 13, concentrated in Buckingham (126 cases), Cumberland (18) and Prince Edward (10) counties. Vaccination rates in those counties are strikingly low: 74.1% in Buckingham, 64.6% in Cumberland, and just 43.9% in Prince Edward, all well below the 95% threshold the CDC says is needed for herd immunity.

No new Virginia cases have been reported in several weeks, but officials are watching the start of the school year closely. "We definitely want to be more vigilant about checking immunizations at the beginning of the school year," Felicia Preston of Martinsville Public Schools told the Virginia Cardinal.

The Political Fight Over Why This Is Happening

On CBS's Face the Nation, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), the Republican nominee for Florida governor, argued the outbreaks trace back to "rampant illegal immigration" under the Biden administration, telling host Margaret Brennan that more than 10 million people entered the country without a vaccination record. Brennan pressed him on whether he'd tell Florida parents to vaccinate their kids given the state's sub-95% immunization rate. Donalds said his focus was border security and health care costs, not a vaccination mandate message, according to Breitbart's transcript.

Donalds did not present evidence tying the specific outbreaks in Colorado, Pennsylvania or Virginia to illegal immigration, and the sources reviewed here don't establish that link either. Virginia's health data shows only 7 of its 177 cases were tied to international travel; 170 were contracted domestically.

President Trump has separately called for splitting the combined MMR vaccine into three individual shots given at separate times, arguing combined doses "could be" more dangerous, according to remarks reported by the Daily Signal. Merck has said breaking the vaccine into three shots could take up to 10 years to develop and approve, and Dr. Mehmet Oz has stated publicly that MMR is "not a lethal vaccine."

The unresolved question in Pennsylvania is medical, not political: what do the death certificates actually say, and will the coroner's office or the state health department release enough detail to settle Commissioner Parsons's challenge?