Claim: Two Recent “Measles-Associated” Deaths May Have Been “Fabricated”

Verdict: Broadly false, but some questions remain open

“The announcement appears to have been premature, and the deaths may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor's hopeful staffers. The Lancaster County Coroner says that it has no record of any measles deaths. State law requires that all measles deaths be reported to the coroner.” – RFK Jr

Governor Shapiro's unseemly rush to Lancaster County to convene a national press conference and his…

Two deaths that the Pennsylvania Department of Health called “measles-associated” have been at the centre of a political firestorm this week. RFK Jr. said these deaths may have been “fabricated,” but more broadly, disputes that measles was the cause of death.

The Two Deaths: What We Know

A great FactCheck.org post runs through the details of the deaths. In short, while few details have been released, we do know that two individuals died, that they had not been vaccinated and that they had confirmed measles infections. While we know next-to-nothing about one case, the other case has since been confirmed to have been an infant whose primary cause of death was a “traumatic laceration of the spleen.”

This child contracted measles before birth and died shortly afterwards. It’s worth noting that this child would not ordinarily have been vaccinated by this point.

One thing to note: It has been clearly confirmed by the coroner and other state health officials that the deaths were not fabricated, as RFK Jr. claimed.

The “Cause of Death” in Measles Cases

RFK Jr. said the coroner had no record of any “measles deaths,” but this is misleading on its own. In fact, most deaths from measles do not list measles as a primary cause of death. Instead, the primary cause of death is usually the specific complication leading to death. One study from the 1970s looked at this and found that only 9.9% of 454 cases actually listed “measles” as the primary cause of death.

Measles and the Spleen

Since details are only available in one case, the focus has been on that child. The coroner claimed that measles didn’t contribute to the death, because the spleen was not enlarged [3]. However, vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit noted that this is hard to determine after a rupture, and such a rupture should have a clear explanation. This has not been settled yet.

It’s worth noting that an enlarged spleen is a known complication of measles, present in one third of all cases in a recent Polish study and 15.4% of all infant cases.

Overall, these cases were not fabricated. That said, health officials could have avoided a lot of confusion by being clearer in the way the cases were reported.