A child in New York has died of measles, health officials in the state announced late Monday. It marks the first reported measles-associated death in New York in more than 30 years. It is the seventh measles-linked death reported in the US this year; all six of the other deaths were reported in Pennsylvania, which is experiencing a dramatic measles outbreak that has stricken over 1,430 people this year. Prior to the deaths, Pennsylvania hadn’t seen a measles-related death in 35 years.

The boom in vaccine-preventable outbreaks, cases,  and tragic deaths is being fueled by slipping vaccination rates nationwide as health misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiments have taken hold. One of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the US currently serves as the US health secretary; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent decades prior to taking office attacking vaccines and spreading misinformation. He and his anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, have been one of the most prolific sources of anti-vaccine content.

Since taking office, Kennedy has waged a multi-front war on vaccines that has included dismantling and obstructing federal vaccine recommendations; launching dubious studies to look for alleged, unspecified harms of vaccines; promoting alleged vaccine injuries; and continuing to spread misinformation about vaccines and vaccine-preventable illnesses.

In a statement, New York Governor Kathy Hochul directly tied the state’s death to Kennedy’s policies and anti-vaccine activism. She called the child’s death “a devastating reminder of what’s at stake when Washington deliberately erodes decades of progress in protecting Americans from preventable illnesses.” She also said she was “heartbroken” by the death, sending her condolences to the family. “As a mother and grandmother, I cannot imagine what this family is going through,” Hochul said. Overall, New York has reported 170 measles cases in over a dozen counties.

Blocked alert

Days before the seventh preventable measles death, The Washington Post reported on Kennedy’s latest push to thwart public health efforts: Career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—which is under Kennedy’s control—were blocked from publishing an urgent health alert to clinicians regarding the risk and management of measles cases during pregnancy.

Given the previous success of vaccines and vaccination campaigns, many clinicians have never seen such cases in their careers. But measles infections during pregnancy pose severe, life-threatening risks to both pregnant people and fetuses. As such, CDC scientists wanted to issue an informational advisory through the CDC’s Health Alert Network.

But the CDC Director’s Office declined to provide the required approval for the alert, sources told the Post. The scientists have since moved to trying to publish the information in the CDC’s publication, The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). But the peer-review process for the publication is longer than that of an advisory. Further, vaccine-related studies already approved for publication in MMWR have been suspiciously delayed, the Post reported. The scientists are now considering publishing the information outside the agency to avoid onerous clearance. Health officials in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, released their own alert on measles in pregnancy and congenital measles on October 19.

Measles reporting

New York has not released the age of the child who died or any other details about the case. The other sixth deaths reported this year have included babies, including one with congenital measles. The six deaths in Pennsylvania included a newborn with congenital measles, whose mother was severely ill at the time of birth; a 6-week-old who was too young to be vaccinated; a “perfectly healthy” 18-year-old; a 20-year-old with leukemia; a 40-year-old with underlying conditions; and a 39-year-old with underlying conditions. All the deceased were unvaccinated.

Pennsylvania’s health department is currently only reporting five deaths; the department confirmed to Ars Technica on Monday that its investigation into the sixth death, reported by the Franklin County coroner on October 12, is still pending. A Franklin County judge has ordered that information about the death be sealed from public review, and The Philadelphia Inquirer has taken legal action to obtain certain death record details.

The CDC, meanwhile, has reported only three of the seven deaths this year. Kennedy reportedly ordered the CDC to delete some of the early deaths and has since changed how the CDC counts deaths. Instead of the long-standing practice of relaying reports from states, the CDC now relies on federal death records, which can take weeks to come through and are not designed to capture the real-time data needed to respond to an active outbreak.

Overall, the CDC reports over 4,850 measles cases across 47 states and jurisdictions. At least 511 people have been hospitalized. This year’s tally is more than double the total from all of 2025, which was 2,289 cases with three deaths. The 2026 tally is also the largest the country has seen since 1991, prior to measles being declared eliminated from the US in 2000 amid high vaccination rates.