HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to the latest accusations from Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) by clarifying that Shapiro has explicitly refused assistance from the federal government and is using unreliable standards for counting measles deaths in the state. In short, Shapiro is deliberately trying to make the health risk appear worse than it is in order to demonize unvaccinated Pennsylvanians and the Trump administration.
Governor Shapiro has chosen to politicize this outbreak instead of implementing a unified public health response. 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. I have offered the Governor CDC Epi-Aid, which would put CDC epidemiologists on the ground to help the state respond. Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin requested Epi-Aids and worked alongside CDC teams to help bring their outbreaks rapidly and successfully under control. Governor Shapiro’s claim that I directed CDC to suppress Pennsylvania deaths is false. CDC is applying a consistent national standard rather than allowing politicians to decide which deaths appear in federal mortality statistics. CDC will report measles-caused deaths when the National Center for Health Statistics reports measles as the underlying cause based on death record information submitted by the states. CDC’s MMR recommendation remains unchanged. I have repeatedly stated that MMR vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles infection. Pennsylvanians deserve accurate, evidence-based public health information—not political grandstanding.
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) September 15, 2026
I argue that Shapiro actually wants more deaths to occur. It was the same thing during the COVID lockdowns, when both federal officials like Anthony Fauci and state and local governments stubbornly persisted in enforcing policies that were obviously arbitrary or outright disastrous, while rejecting treatments with proven effectiveness like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Don’t forget how much they inflated the COVID-19 death count as justification, just as Shapiro seems to be doing now with measles.
I am no scientist, but I could’ve predicted (and did, actually) that shutting down the economy for a virus like COVID-19 with over a 98% survival rate was going to be much more harmful than helpful. I am no doctor, but I knew that vaccinating during a pandemic with an untested and massively rushed vaccine was going to be a problem. But I think that lefty officials knew all that perfectly well also, which is why they were so insanely aggressive and unconstitutional about crushing any free speech debating these issues. They were making poor decisions, and they didn’t care, because it worked in favor of their control and their power to do so. The lockdowns and vaccine passports were never about saving lives; they were always about micromanaging lives.
And I think Josh Shapiro absolutely has the same desire for power in this case. He is furious that the Amish refuse to follow all the vaccine rules that his government enforces, and he is trying to use this measles outbreak as an excuse to demonize them. Democrat petty dictators are never content to allow people to have different opinions and lifestyles. They must always force everyone to acknowledge their own supposed superiority and brilliance. It’s a sillier but still dangerous version of the rage of a Nebuchadnezzar or Nero who throws people into furnaces or lion cages because they will not bow down and worship human rulers.
Democrats have never cared about individual lives, from the days of slavery and the Civil War to the present, with their celebration of Charlie Kirk's death and mass riots. From illegal immigration to soft-on-crime policies to abortion to political domestic terrorism, nearly every Democrat policy seems to tend toward death and chaos. So why should we be surprised if their medical policies are equally deadly?
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Shapiro has bragged about thwarting ICE operations, despite violent illegal alien crime in his state. He cut off funding for pregnancy centers that refused to recommend abortions. As Pennsylvania attorney general, he changed police hiring requirements to appease violent BLM rioters in 2020. After encouraging people to report each other for tiny infractions of COVID policies during the lockdowns, he later admitted the lockdowns were a mistake. And this is not the first time he has gone after the Amish.
@ScottPresler NEVER FORGET. Josh Shapiro sent the PA State Police to unlawfully confiscate AMOS MILLER's food.... and Amish farmer in Lancaster that sells healthy food. Shapiro has been trying to put him out of business for years. https://t.co/3m143Gq2SF
— David Kearns (@bherenow22) August 26, 2026
The reality is that Shapiro, like so many other Democrats, doesn’t give a darn about saving lives. He is desperate for some excuse to enforce vaccine mandates, no matter how ill-judged, on every person who lives in Pennsylvania, regardless of their religious beliefs.
