Four people have died of measles in Pennsylvania: two infants, an 18-year-old, and a 40-year-old woman.
Posted by All In with Chris Hayes, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
All In with Chris HayesSep 19, 2026
As of 2026-09-19, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and multiple outlets reported four measles-associated deaths: two unvaccinated infants in Lancaster County, a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County, and an 18-year-old in Mifflin County, matching the claim.
Our two reads of who says this, and how, disagree, so it counts as the post's own claim.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… Is that what's going on here? Yeah, and a really, uh, really great way to not get bad press for stuff like that, like measles deaths, is just to pretend that they're not happening, right? If the, that this is what happened, the State of Pennsylvania says we have four measles deaths. Two infants too young to be vaccinated, an 18-year-old who was unvaccinated, and a 40-year-old woman who was unvaccinated, all died of measles. And Kennedy just told his CDC to say, no, don't count them. And if you don't count them, can't really complain. And so that is what we're seeing. And, you know, it's not just that. …
All In with Chris Hayes · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two additional measles-associated deaths, one in Jefferson County and one in Mifflin County, bringing its 2026 total to four, all unvaccinated.[2]
Supports. AP reports the four deaths as two infants too young for vaccination in Lancaster County, a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County, and an 18-year-old in Mifflin County, none of whom were vaccinated.[1]
Supports. NPR and NBC both report four measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania as of September 15–17, 2026, including the 40-year-old woman and the 18-year-old, with the infant deaths in Lancaster County.[3][4]
Context. The Inquirer (Sept 21) reports the Lancaster County coroner said one infant died from a lacerated spleen rather than measles, though the baby tested positive, and that the state's count uses a measles-associated definition that does not exclude every such case; this is a later development relative to the claim date.[5]
Context. The claim's wording matches the speaker's passage on the state's count of four deaths; the extraction dropped only the vaccination-status detail, which does not change the core assertion.[1][2]
Sources
5 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 2 tier 2, 1 not rated
- 1Pennsylvania reports its fourth measles death - AP Newsapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2DOH Confirms Two Additional Measles-Associated Deaths - PA.GOVpa.gov · primary source · cited for: supports, context
- 34 measles-associated deaths reported in Pennsylvania amid ...npr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 4Pennsylvania teen dies from measles complications, health ...nbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 5Pennsylvania measles cases near 800 in ongoing outbreakinquirer.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- People are dying of measles-related causes in Pennsylvania.True
- There is a measles outbreak in the United States that is the deadliest in decades.Mixed
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. instructed the CDC not to count the four measles deaths in Pennsylvania.Mixed
- There is a measles outbreak in the United States described as the worst in decades.True
- There is currently a measles outbreak in the United States.True