Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni told WGAL and LancasterOnline on Friday that a 6-week-old Amish girl died from measles at home. He believed the date was August 18. Amish lethal microcephaly was present. Diamantoni said measles was still the cause of death. [1] [2] That is one forensic finding. It is not a merged national death box.
Thursday this paper reported 540 Pennsylvania cases, a Turnpike plaza, two deaths still on the state's page, and a CDC asterisk. Those are not today's news. The dual ledgers have not merged. Do not fold Friday into Thursday's plaza. Do not treat Friday as both infants confirmed as measles deaths.
The other infant remains the other file. The August 14 newborn boy, Diamantoni said again Friday, died of a ruptured spleen, not measles. Measles was listed on the death certificate. [1] [2] LancasterOnline reported no swelling of the spleen and massive blood loss from a laceration. The coroner has declined to identify that child. [2] Do not collapse a spleen finding into a measles cause of death. Do not collapse a measles cause of death into a claim that both deaths are now settled as measles.
Pennsylvania's Department of Health, asked whether the 6-week-old was one of the two measles-associated deaths announced August 25, said through press secretary Neil Ruhland: "Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania. The Department is aware of the information reported by the Lancaster County Coroner. There are no new measles-associated deaths to report at this time." [2] Ars Technica reported Friday that the department told it the baby girl is one of those two. [3] Diamantoni told LancasterOnline he still did not know whether she was the second death from that announcement. [2] Keep those sentences side by side. They are not a third death. They are not a finding that both infants died of measles.
The case counts moved. LancasterOnline, citing the state tracker Friday, put Pennsylvania at 577 confirmed cases and Lancaster County at 246. [2] NBC News, citing new CDC data Friday, put the national tally at 3,134, the highest since 1991, and said Pennsylvania had added at least 115 cases in a week. [4] Do not fold 577 into 3,134 as if they were printed on the same form. Do not re-run 540.
The federal death box is still not a number. LancasterOnline Friday still quoted the agency's earlier asterisk sentence: "At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles." [2] Ars, also Friday afternoon, said that note was gone, replaced by language that the National Center for Health Statistics "does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause." [3] Direct CDC text could not be re-read here. Do not treat an NCHS-records test as a finding that the deaths were invented. Do not treat a blocked dashboard as a cause-of-death verdict. Pennsylvania still lists two. CDC's public chart still lists none.
Diamantoni said the 6-week-old's case was not first reported to his office. He and colleagues found it had been handled by the Clinic for Special Children in Leacock Township. No autopsy was performed. The child had already been buried. He said he did not fault the clinic. Children with Amish lethal microcephaly, he said, typically live five or six months and often die of respiratory infection. Measles is a respiratory infection. The physicians who signed the certificate, he said, did so with that knowledge. [2] The clinic declined details, citing privacy. [2] LancasterOnline called this the first death confirmed from measles in Pennsylvania since 1991. [2] That is the paper's sentence, not a CDC table.
Kennedy has called the state's announcements fabricated. Governor Josh Shapiro, Ars reported, shared the coroner's confirmation Friday and said it was "long past time for RFK to stop playing games with people's lives" and to "report these deaths accurately on the CDC dashboard." [3] That is the political file. It does not merge the ledgers. One infant now has a coroner cause of death of measles. One infant still has a spleen. The state still prints two measles-associated deaths. The federal public chart still prints an asterisk. A reader of only the fabrication fight would miss the county finding. A reader of only the coroner headline would miss that CDC public still lists none. Keep them unmerged.
-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago