A coroner in Pennsylvania said measles did not cause the death of a baby, after state officials said the baby was one of two people whose deaths were linked to measles.
The baby died from a laceration to the spleen, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, the coroner in Lancaster County, told local outlet LNP.
While the baby did test positive for measles, the coroner’s office ruled out measles as a factor because “there was no swelling or enlargement whatsoever” of the spleen, Diamantoni said.
“We want to determine the cause of the laceration. And we may not be able to,” Diamantoni also said.
He identified the child as dying on Aug. 14 at a birthing center in Christina Borough.
Dr. Adam Urato, a maternal and fetal medicine doctor in Massachusetts, said in a post on X that the death appeared to have stemmed from birth trauma.
Beyond saying both individuals were unvaccinated and resided in Lancaster County, officials declined to provide details, citing a desire to protect the privacy of the people’s families.
Diamontoni then told a county commissioner and news agencies that the only dead person who tested positive in the county recently was the baby, and that the baby died due to a ruptured spleen.
He had not previously said that measles was ruled out as a factor.
State officials, following Diamontoni’s initial disclosures, said that the baby was one of the two people whose deaths were “measles-associated.”
“As a pediatrician with more than 30 years of caring for children, I have thoroughly reviewed the case investigation information and sadly can confirm that there were two recent measles-associated deaths in Lancaster County,” Dr. Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, said in a statement.
While Bogen said details of the deaths were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Kennedy oversees, on Aug. 25, the CDC said on Thursday that there was conflicting information about whether the deaths were caused by measles.
“CDC is working to determine what actually occurred,” the agency, which is under new leadership, said in a statement. “These discrepancies raise important questions, particularly because the Governor’s Office has not provided CDC with information relevant to the outbreak and has declined our offers of assistance.”
A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who called the deaths preventable by vaccination, referred a request for comment to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
A spokesperson for the agency told The Epoch Times in an email it has "consistently used the term ‘measles-associated’ in relation to these two deaths.
“That term means laboratory or epidemiologic evidence of measles is present—in both cases there was a positive measles test—but the disease may not be assessed by the medical certifier, or coroner, to be the immediate cause of death."
The spokesperson added: "It is vital to note that for communicable diseases, the infection itself is not always listed as the immediate cause of death and may instead be listed as an underlying or contributing factor.
"For example, if someone tested positive for tuberculosis (TB) and died from complications of TB, like pneumonia, the immediate cause of death will likely be listed as respiratory failure, but TB would be listed as an underlying or contributing factor.
“The same principle might exist with someone who passes from a drug overdose—immediate cause of death may be respiratory or cardiac failure, but the overdose contributed."