Inside the CDC measles deaths deletion: How a health secretary overrode data

Two infant deaths linked to measles were quietly erased from the CDC’s public database after direct instruction from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. The

CDC measles deaths

deletion, confirmed by Reuters, occurred on August 30 when new CDC director Erica Schwartz removed the entries without protest.

“The data were pulled at the request of the Secretary,” an insider said.

The removed cases involved a newborn and a child in Pennsylvania, a state currently battling a ↑ 540-case measles surge, including ↓ 2 fatalities that remain logged internally. CDC officials had already vetted the deaths as measles‑related, yet the public record was altered. Bloomberg notes that the agency continues to tally the deaths in secret, raising questions about transparency during a public‑health emergency.