It has all the earmarks of a Quincy or House episode. A state governor has a press conference announcing two deaths from measles and attacks a federal official of the opposing party for his resistance to the MMR vaccine.
Except it wasn't a TV episode.
On August 25, 2026, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro held a news conference announcing that two people had died and that the deaths were "measles associated." Notice the careful phrasing — "measles associated" means the deaths were of people who showed forensic evidence of hosting the measles virus, not that it was a cause of death.
That didn't keep Gov. Shapiro from using it to attack Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., of course.
Shortly afterward, Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons came out with some questions.
Measles questions.
— Commissioner Josh Parsons (@CommissionerJP) August 26, 2026
Let’s be clear- when the Governor comes into our county and holds a press conference with PA Department of Health and Penn Medicine Lancaster general Health and states there were two “measles-associated deaths” here, with the underlying assertion that the two…
He raises some interesting points. First of all, he doesn't give many details, and it turns out that they have only actually reported one death. That was a newborn boy who died immediately after birth. The coroner — an MD, contrary to some original claims — and a forensic pathologist cited the actual cause of death as "traumatic laceration/rupture of the spleen with massive internal hemorrhage." The autopsy further found that:
...measles was ruled out as a contributing factor because, Diamantoni said, “there was no swelling or enlargement whatsoever” of the spleen and there was “massive blood loss” from the laceration.
The death was listed as "measles-associated," which the Pennsylvania Department of Health defined as meaning that "laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present but the official cause of death is under investigation."
After being pressed on the details, Gov. Shapiro is walking it back, saying he doesn't want to indulge "conspiracy theories." But a few days later, the New York Times (!!) called out Gov. Shapiro's announcement in an article on August 30 headlined "How Not to Announce a Measles Death."
Related: What’s Gov. Shapiro Trying to Hide About the Two Alleged Measles Deaths in Pennsylvania?
The New York Times opinion page just confirmed the facts I documented today — and called a "conspiracy theory" last week.
— Sayer Ji (@sayerjigmi) August 30, 2026
A NYT physician — writing from a pro-vaccine frame — calls Pennsylvania's refusal to release the death data "hard to justify," the "completely preventable"… https://t.co/h7VgQrgSJs pic.twitter.com/pQfkPmyIns
Sayer Ji discovered some other interesting things. For example, it turned out that a political operation was planning and polling an attack on Kennedy and Trump before the baby's death.
The New York Times opinion page just confirmed the facts I documented today — and called a "conspiracy theory" last week.
— Sayer Ji (@sayerjigmi) August 30, 2026
A NYT physician — writing from a pro-vaccine frame — calls Pennsylvania's refusal to release the death data "hard to justify," the "completely preventable"… https://t.co/h7VgQrgSJs pic.twitter.com/pQfkPmyIns
And already had their attacks "in the can" for when it was time to pull the trigger.
7/THE TRIGGER FIRES
— Sayer Ji (@sayerjigmi) August 30, 2026
Aug 25: the governor announces the deaths.Within the SAME NEWS CYCLE, the war room Protect Our Care declares Trump and RFK Jr. have "blood on their hands" — ending "Mr. Kennedy, f---ing resign already."
A pre-tested message doesn't take hours to write. It… pic.twitter.com/N645C2dlhd
Related: RFK Slams ‘Gaslighting’ From Gov. Shapiro on Vaccines and Aborted Tissues
There are a lot of people who continue to insist it was measles, dammit. This real Captain Ahab was an MD — I'm not going to name him; he already knows in his heart that he has been showing a lower — I'd even say fundamental — part of his anatomy — who started by insisting that it was the measles that killed the baby, and then insisted that the coroner wasn't even an MD (except he is), and then that a splenic laceration makes it obvious it was measles (except there seem to be no cases of neonatal deaths from splenic laceration associated with measles), and then that the splenic laceration had to be proof of the kid being beaten (he asserted that the baby had broken bones and dislocations, which don't appear on the autopsy but should absolutely mean the police should be called).
But Dr. Ahab is afflicted with a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome and just knew it had to be All His Fault.
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