On 13 September 2026, the Washington Post reports that a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, has died of complications from measles. According to the local coroner, she was unvaccinated.

A measles outbreak is underway in Pennsylvania as I write this article. According to the latest data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, at least 676 people in the state had contracted measles during 2026.

Pennsylvania has experienced two previous measles-related deaths involving infants. Both occurred in August 2026, and a coroner reported that the virus itself caused one of the deaths.

This death occurred during the ongoing row between Pennsylvania and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr who has cast doubt on measles as the cause of the deaths of two Lancaster County residents, suggesting that they “may even have been altogether fabricated.”

According to the Washington Post, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has excluded from its weekly updates of a national measles death tally the two deaths that state officials reported. The highly unusual decision — which departs from the agency’s practice of including such data from state health departments — came from new CDC Director Erica Schwartz.”

It’s disturbing that RFK and the CDC Director Schwartz are doing everything they can to lessen measles deaths that have been observed in Pennsylvania. It is infuriating on so many levels.

Measles complications

I know many of you may think that measles is a childhood disease, and it mostly is, but if you have no immunity to the disease, it presents the same danger to adults as it does to children. According to the CDC, some of the many measles complications are:

• For every 1,000 children who get measles, 1-2 will die from it.
• About 30% of measles cases develop one or more complications.
• Pneumonia is the complication that is most often the cause of death in young children.
• Ear infections occur in about 1 in 10 measles cases, which can result in permanent hearing loss.
• Diarrhea is reported in about 8% of cases.
• As many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia.
• About 1 child in every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can lead to convulsions, deafness, and other long-term neurological deficits.
• A measles infection can result in short- and long-term immune system dysfunction, sometimes called immune amnesia, which can leave the child susceptible to other diseases early in life (which is in direct opposition to claims by anti-vaccine activists that it helps “boost” the immune system). If a child developed immunity to a disease before the measles infection, their immune system will “forget” that immunity, and the child will be susceptible to that infection again.
• About 1-2 children out of 1000 who contract measles may develop subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare chronic, progressive encephalitis that primarily affects children and young adults. SSPE results from a persistent measles infection. The disease starts with measles infection, usually before the child reaches two years old. This is usually followed by approximately 6-15 asymptomatic years. Some researchers think the asymptomatic period lasts about 5-8 years after the initial disease. The disease gradually progresses with psychological and neurological deterioration, including personality changes, seizures, and coma. It is always ultimately fatal.

Summary

Sadly, measles not only imperils children, but it is also dangerous to adults. If an adult has no immunity to the disease, whether from vaccines or exposure to the measles virus, they can suffer the same complications as children. It is a devastating disease.

RFK Jr. and CDC Director Schwartz are dismissing the existential crisis happening in the USA with this current measles outbreak. So far, one adult and two children have died from measles-related medical issues. But this does not fit in the anti-vaccine narrative that they seem to embrace.

The MMR vaccine (for measles, mumps, and rubella) is extremely safe (no, it does not cause autism) and very effective in preventing measles. It is a simple way to prevent this dangerous disease.

People should not be dying from measles in 2026. In fact, measles was considered eradicated in 2000, but here we are, dealing with a major outbreak as a result of the anti-vaccine movement. I hope they’re proud that someone died from a vaccine-preventable disease.

I’m tired of writing about measles, but here I am because it’s come back from nearly extinct to wreak havoc on children and adults.

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