Pennsylvania requests CDC aid, ties it to recognition of measles deaths

Pennsylvania has requested emergency CDC assistance for its spreading measles outbreak while conditioning the request on federal recognition of four measles-associated deaths.

• Health Secretary Debra Bogen wrote to CDC Director Erica Schwartz requesting an Epi-Aid and warning the state would withdraw it unless the CDC publicly recognizes four measles-associated deaths.
• HHS press secretary Grace Davis Jamison said the CDC had not received the request through normal channels and would not submit to "political blackmail," accusing Governor Josh Shapiro of politicizing the process.
• The state reports 731 confirmed cases across 38 counties this year, with 141 hospitalizations; all four people who died were unvaccinated, according to the state.
• The dispute began in August when the CDC removed two Pennsylvania measles deaths from its national tally after Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr questioned whether measles caused them.