Shapiro cites ‘deeply serious’ outbreak as measles cases rise

The Pa. Department of Health said 460 cases had been reported by Friday afternoon.

By TOM FONTAINE
TribLive

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Friday morning measles cases in Pennsylvania had risen to 445, up more than 20 since the state had last reported numbers Wednesday.

By Friday afternoon, the number had climbed to 460, according to the Department of Health.

“This is obviously a deeply serious measles outbreak that we are dealing with all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said during a news conference announcing state funding for a municipal building project in Montgomery County.

Shapiro said cases had been reported in 31 of the state’s 67 counties.

Shapiro dismissed the notion the state has not been transparent enough in releasing information about the outbreak and two deaths in Lancaster County the state linked to measles.

“The Department of Health has made it clear that they’ve shared all the information that they are permitted under state law to share, and that those two deaths were measles-related,” he said.

The Lancaster County coroner told TribLive on Thursday his office had not recorded any measles deaths, though he later acknowledged the disease was listed as a contributing condition on an infant’s death certificate.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh- based senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, countered Shapiro’s claim the Department of Health released all the information it was allowed to under law.

While state law makes most communicable disease case reports confidential, Adalja said releasing information to “prevent further deaths during an active, accelerating outbreak” is an exception.

And a host of details could be publicly released without identifying an infected person who died, including their age range, vaccination status, specific complication, whether measles is expected to appear on their death certificate and when a final determination on the death is expected to be released.

“None of that is a name. None of that is an address. The commonwealth chose the narrowest available reading of an exception of an exception it was legally free to read generously, and then appeared surprised when the silence filled with something considerably worse than the truth,” Adalja wrote on Substack.

Shapiro declined to discuss the public spat that erupted this week between him and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic.

“I don’t think it serves the interest of public health … for me to get into a backand- forth about conspiracy theories that are showing up online,” he said. “I’ve got a serious job to do for the people of Pennsylvania, and that job at this moment requires me to do a whole bunch of things, including trying to find ways to stop the spread of this measles outbreak.”

Kennedy said this week that Pennsylvania officials had turned down an offer of federal help in dealing with the outbreak. Shapiro on Friday said the state Department of Health “will continue to collaborate with the CDC and other federal agencies. We’ll continue to collaborate with our local communities as they have. We’ll continue to put out accurate information as they have.”

“We have received the support that is needed, according to the (state) Department of Health,” he added. “We’ve been in regular communication with the CDC and other federal agencies. If I have any unmet needs that I need from the federal government, I will reach out to them and make that request.”