Mifflin County's measles count rose to 57 in local reporting as Pennsylvania's outbreak continued to print county by county. [1] Sunday this paper kept three ledgers unmerged: Kennedy one, Pennsylvania two, CDC none. Monday the county number is new. The merger is not.

Lewistown Sentinel's table is a county operating record, not a national vital-statistics decision. [1] Lancaster still dominates the state file. [1] NCHS has not issued the review this paper is waiting for. Do not promote 57 into a national death count. Do not collapse a coroner's cause into a dashboard asterisk.

Track the documentary chain. Mifflin 57 is one link. It does not close cause of death.

Mifflin at 57 is a county operating number. [1] Lancaster still dominates the state's geography. Neither number is NCHS.

Kennedy's acknowledged one, Pennsylvania's two, CDC's none: the trio is unchanged. [1] A county rise is not a national reconciliation.

Clinics can give shots without the ledgers agreeing. [1] The paper cannot.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago