Pennsylvania seeks CDC emergency help as measles outbreak grows, conditions request on death toll recognition

Pennsylvania has begun requesting an Epi-Aid emergency response team from the CDC to combat a spreading measles outbreak, but health secretary Debra Bogen warned in a letter to CDC director Erica Schwartz that the state will withdraw the request unless the agency publicly acknowledges four measles-associated deaths it has reported. The dispute is tied to an ongoing conflict between Governor Josh Shapiro and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has questioned whether the deaths were actually caused by measles and directed the CDC to exclude Pennsylvania's fatalities from the national death count.