Thursday, American Oversight launched an investigation into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) apparently manipulated reporting surrounding two measles-associated deaths reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The alterations reportedly came at the command of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with HHS and CDC seeking records that could shed light on why the agency departed from its normal classification practices and altered its public reporting on the deaths following Secretary Kennedy’s demands as well as unsubstantiated claims that the data may have been “manipulated” by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
The investigation comes amid a nationwide rise in measles cases, including in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to the largest current outbreak in the country. On August 25, the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two measles-associated deaths of unvaccinated residents, the state’s first deaths linked to the virus in 35 years. One of the deaths involved a newborn who died shortly after birth. The baby’s mother had reportedly been severely ill with measles during her pregnancy. Under standard CDC practice, deaths reported by state health departments — including deaths that occurred in Texas and New Mexico during last year’s outbreak — are included in the agency’s national tally and the CDC does not challenge the state’s determination.
According to reporting by multiple outlets, newly confirmed CDC Director Erica Schwartz directed agency staff to exclude the two Pennsylvania deaths from its measles outbreak web page, which is typically updated each Friday. The demanded change reportedly came directly from Kennedy. The web page update was delayed until Sunday, August 30, and the dashboard’s national death total changed several times over the weekend before the agency added a note stating, “At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles.” CDC employees reportedly said the repeated changes stemmed from confusion among staff about what they were supposed to do.
The CDC’s break from standard practice came after Secretary Kennedy publicly accused Governor Shapiro of “manipulating” the truth and suggested on social media, without evidence, that the two deaths may even have been “fabricated” by Shapiro’s staff. The repeated dashboard revisions raise the question of whether the CDC’s public data was reshaped to align with Secretary Kennedy’s demands and political messaging rather than with the agency’s own longstanding classification practice.
State health officials, who classified the deaths as “measles-associated,” have stood by their findings.
“The administration is playing politics with a rapidly spreading, deadly measles outbreak — and that means playing politics with people’s lives,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “The CDC’s reported willingness to bow to Kennedy’s demands and second-guess a state’s own investigation into two tragic deaths, including a newborn baby, raises serious questions about how his anti-vaccine crusade has infected the integrity of the agency’s approach to public health and contributed to the spread of measles at unprecedented levels. Americans deserve accurate, science-based information, not public health guidance that changes to suit one man’s partisan agenda.”
In launching our investigation, we filed FOIA requests with HHS and CDC seeking all instructions, directives, and guidance relating to the delayed update of CDC’s measles web page and to any investigation into the Pennsylvania deaths, records relating to Kennedy’s and CDC’s social media posts about the deaths, and email communications among senior HHS and CDC officials — including Secretary Kennedy and Director Schwartz — referencing key terms related to the deaths and the agency’s reporting decisions.
The public has a substantial interest in the timely and accurate reporting of data on a highly contagious, rapidly spreading, and deadly disease. Delays or alterations to that data, particularly when they coincide with a political dispute among the officials responsible for reporting it, risk eroding public trust and fueling the very misinformation that public health agencies exist to counter.
Last week, we asked the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into Secretary Kennedy over apparent false statements he made to two Senate committees denying that his 2019 trip to Samoa had anything to do with vaccines. A newly revealed 2019 letter showed Kennedy had personally proposed a vaccine-focused “assessment” of Samoa’s measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination program to the Samoan government, directly contradicting that testimony. Months after Kennedy’s visit, a measles outbreak swept through Samoa, sickening thousands and killing 83 people, most of them children under five — an outbreak public health officials have said was worsened by anti-vaccine activism that Kennedy’s visit helped legitimize.
