Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is almost certainly eyeing a 2028 run, did some fearmongering earlier this week when he claimed that a newborn had died from measles. The narrative, of course, is that President Donald Trump is to blame for the measles outbreak and the infant's death by appointing anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his administration.
Here's Fox News reporting on Shapiro's comments Tuesday and RFK's response, saying that it was the same playbook the Democrats ran for the COVID-19 pandemic.
🚨 BREAKING: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is running MAJOR DAMAGE CONTROL after he just got fully exposed fabricating "measles deaths" for two newborns
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 28, 2026
RESIGN, NOW!
Not only were the deaths NOT CAUSED by measles — but the newborns were called "unvaccinated" despite being… pic.twitter.com/os0bICNur6
The post continues:
… BELOW the age where any baby would even get vaccinated for measles!
The attempt: to make it seem like Sec. RFK Jr. CAUSED the deaths.
Freaking despicable. This guy is NOT fit to be governor, much less president
He's pulling the COVID playbook, but almost worse. Step down!
The Lancaster County coroner performed an autopsy and confirmed that the infant died of a ruptured spleen, not measles. On Friday, a reporter asked Shapiro, with so much misinformation and confusion floating around, why he wasn't more specific and transparent about that case. Not surprisingly, Shapiro didn't want to address that, saying he didn't think "it serves the interest of public health … for me to get into a back and forth about conspiracy theories showing up online."
Josh Shapiro was just asked why he claimed a newborn infant who died of a spleen rupture died due to being unvaccinated for measles:
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 28, 2026
"I don't think it serves the interest of public health for me to get into a back and forth about conspiracy theories showing up online."
I'm… pic.twitter.com/Stm7KiCihy
The post continues:
… pretty sure what actually doesn't serve public health is a politician lying to score political points because he wants to run for President.
On Saturday, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said that of course the infant wasn't vaccinated for measles. Babies are not vaccinated until they're 15 months old.
🚨 JUST IN: NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya OBLITERATES PA Gov. Josh Shapiro for manufacturing measles deaths to scare the public
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 29, 2026
"The governor said the kids were not vaccinated — of course, babies are NOT vaccinated for measles until they're at least 15 months old. So of COURSE… pic.twitter.com/ZoIYcyF1iS
The post continues:
… they're not vaccinated, right?!"
"What the governor is doing is he's playing this out over the airwaves for political purposes, just like what happened during COVID!"
"But they're not going to release any other information."
"And this is why there's such deep distrust in public health."
"What Secretary Kennedy's been doing is to try to restore that trust at the NIH."
Democrats need to stop politicizing health!
Shapiro doesn't want to get into any conspiracy theories … that he spread.
The insinuation here is that RFK caused children to die
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 28, 2026
It's straight up evil
Is there even one Democrat in government who ever tells the truth, clarifies facts or admits their grift? The answer is a resounding NO.
— Sherry Kerdman (@sherry_kerdman) August 29, 2026
This is what I call a disqualification event. He is so desperate for attention he used the death of an infant to score political points. That tells me everything I need to know about his character. Despicable.
— JAGOTI (@Jagoti8) August 28, 2026
In other words: "I thought I could lie and get away with it to slightly damage the party of my opponents, I got caught in said lie, and now I just want it all to go away"
— Timothy PARKER (@MrTimothyParker) August 28, 2026
I guess the coroner is a conspiracy theorist?
— Walton Wisdom 🇺🇸 (@TheWaltonWisdom) August 28, 2026
Given how casual this was, imagine what else he has lied about.
— navydoc001 🇺🇲 (@navydoc001) August 28, 2026
Bottom line...@JoshShapiroPA lied. He was caught lying and he is doing all he can to cover up the lie.
— intersection (@krashcourse1) August 28, 2026
He wanted measles to be responsible for the infant's death so he could pin it on RFK and the Trump administration. It's no wonder there's an erosion of trust in both politics and medicine.
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