A 6-week-old Amish baby died from measles in Pennsylvania, local coroner confirms, as feud between Shapiro and RFK Jr. continues over the deaths

A six-week-old Amish infant from Lancaster County died from measles last month after receiving the care of a community clinic for a deadly genetic disorder, Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni said Friday.

The disclosure comes amid an escalating clash between Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and President Donald Trump’s administration over whether two deaths reported by the state last week should be attributed to the ongoing measles outbreak in Pennsylvania.

The six-week-old infant died from measles at home and had been in the care of the Clinic for Special Children, a Lancaster County-based treatment and research center focused on diseases found in Old Order Amish and Mennonite communities, LancasterOnline first reported.

The baby had been getting treated for a deadly genetic disorder, Amish lethal microcephaly, prior to the child’s death from measles, Diamantoni confirmed.

The baby had been receiving palliative care and was not expected to live much longer than six months due to the genetic condition that occurs in one in every 500 newborns within Pennsylvania’s Amish community, Diamantoni said.

The announcement follows a nearly two-week-long public feud between Shapiro and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over whether to classify the Pennsylvania deaths as measles-related. Their standoff has led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention taking the unusual step of withholding the deaths from its measles tracker, reportedly under pressure from Kennedy.

Shapiro, a first-term Democrat seeking reelection in November, initially provided little detail about two measles-related deaths when he announced them last Tuesday in a news conference, saying only the state’s first deaths from the highly contagious disease since 1991 involved residents of the county who were unvaccinated.

» READ MORE: What do we know about the deaths reported in Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak?

Diamantoni, an elected Republican who is also a physician, subsequently said his office was investigating the death of a newborn who had measles, but did not believe measles contributed to the child’s death. He said the newborn died of a lacerated spleen, and postmortem testing showed a measles infection acquired before birth. He later said “measles” was included on the newborn’s death certificate under a section that lists “significant conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause.”

The deceased baby’s family, who are also Amish, told The Atlantic they believed a severe case of measles during pregnancy contributed to their newborn’s death.

The discrepancies between Diamantoni’s statements and the state’s created an opening for anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy, to publicly question whether the deaths could be attributed to the measles. Kennedy accused Shapiro of fearmongering about the disease — suggesting his office may have even fabricating the deaths.

But the six-week-old infant reported Friday was confirmed to have died from the measles, Diamantoni said, after his office investigated the child’s death that previously was not reported to his office.

The Clinic for Special Children did not know it was necessary to report the death to the Lancaster County coroner’s office, Diamantoni said.

Diamantoni said he reported the six-week-old baby’s death to the CDC on Friday, but had not reported it to the state Department of Health.

He said he did not know whether the six-week-old was the second measles-associated death reported by Pennsylvania last week.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state has said the Pennsylvania health department’s epidemiology team’s thoroughly investigated and determined the two announced deaths were measles-related.

The state defines a measles-associated death as deaths of people where evidence of measles is present, even when the disease may not be assessed by the coroner as the immediate cause of death.

The Shapiro administration has said state privacy laws have limited their ability to release more personal information about the two measles-related.

Shapiro reshared Friday a local news article about the six-week-old baby’s death and criticized Kennedy in an X post for choosing “to sow doubt, play politics, direct the CDC not to acknowledge these deaths, and even accuse me of fabricating these tragedies.”

“That led to a firestorm of conspiracy theories that denied these families’ pain, invaded their privacy, and undermined public health,” Shapiro added.

As of Friday, there have been 577 measles cases in Pennsylvania, including 115 reported within the last week, according to the health department’s online measles dashboard.

Measles deaths are rare. About three in 1,000 children who contract measles will die. While many infections are mild, measles can also cause severe complications, especially in young children, including pneumonia and brain swelling.

Babies with Amish lethal microcephaly frequently die from respiratory infections due to the genetic condition leading the baby to develop with a severely small head and underdeveloped brain, Diamantoni said.

But infants with the genetic condition usually do not die from the measles because the disease had been largely eradicated in the United States until recent years due to widespread vaccination, he said.

“Usually there are not a lot of cases of measles, until recently,” Diamantoni added.

Staff writer Sarah Gantz contributed reporting.