Important information about the measles press conference today: Today Governor Shapiro, members of Penn Medicine LGH, and members of the PA Department of Health (DOH) held a press conference announcing two “measles-associated deaths” in Lancaster County.
Officials provided virtually no background information about these “measles-associated” deaths. DOH said to “protect the privacy of the individuals and their families, DOH will not release any additional details that could personally identify these individuals and their families,” however, they did release the medical information that the two were unvaccinated.
Thus, they did not release age, background, or comorbidity information, but did release vaccination information.
It is important to know whether these two people died OF measles or WITH measles.
Given this is important information for us to have, and that the public and media have many questions about this, I reached out to the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office for information.
Deaths attributed to a communicable disease, under the law, are required to be reported to the Coroner’s office.
The Coroner’s office indicates that it currently has ZERO reported cases where measles is the immediate cause of death.
They have one case where a person died WITH measles, but not FROM measles. Measles was definitely NOT the cause of death in that case.
Given this information, it appears at least on the surface that incorrect information was provided to the public today. That information set off significant media interest in Lancaster County, both locally and nationally.
Perhaps there is an explanation, but it is incumbent on the individuals and organizations that had the press conference today to provide that information to the public in a timely and accurate way.