The CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists are working on a standardized case definition for measles deaths, but the initiative's origin is being described differently than the CDC's website suggests. CSTE spokesperson Amy Heldman said the workgroup was convened earlier this summer through a longstanding consensus-building process, and that it was not requested by the CDC. The group will collaborate with CDC leadership to develop guidance for investigating measles deaths.
News of the workgroup surfaced after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked CDC Director Erica Schwartz to remove two measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania from the CDC's website. An asterisk now appears where those numbers were, accompanied by a note saying the CDC is working with CSTE and that the National Center for Health Statistics has no 2026 death records listing measles as the underlying cause. Experts have pointed out that NCHS is not intended for outbreak tracking, which typically relies on the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.
A CDC source familiar with the process said the move raises red flags and suggested it could make it harder to count confirmed deaths. Pennsylvania currently reports four measles-associated deaths and 792 cases in 2026, while Texas reported three measles-associated deaths last year. The source speculated that the goal may be to make the definition as restrictive as possible, though that remains an opinion rather than a confirmed fact.