Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is the leader of the Keystone State. Millions of Pennsylvanians rely on him to advise them on important matters, government affairs, and state-related issues. This is particularly true regarding health concerns in the state. He’s supposed to be honest with the state’s citizens. Yet recent events have shown that Shapiro struggles significantly to be truthful, trustworthy, and transparent.
First, it was his dishonesty over claims that no Pennsylvania business would contribute to the Great American State Fair. Now it appears he was not candid about his claims regarding two alleged measles deaths in Pennsylvania.
Recommended Stories
What happened?
Earlier in the week, health and government officials, including Shapiro, claimed that two people in the state had died from measles. The fatalities were supposedly Pennsylvania’s first fatalities from the disease in over 35 years. Shapiro and company held a media briefing at Lancaster General Health’s Women and Babies Hospital, with the Pennsylvania governor warning that the deaths were indicative of “the consequences of a lack of immunization.”
Shapiro and company refused to provide any details about the victims, other than that the two who died were unvaccinated. They used the excuse of “privacy concerns” for the families to do so. No one knew anything about those who died. Their ages, sex, when they died, and any demographic information were purposely withheld. Not one detail about their deaths was released. Suspiciously, the only thing Pennsylvanians were told was that two people died from measles in Lancaster County.
“We hope, and we pray, that those deaths will be the last,” said Shapiro. “This illness and death from measles is completely preventable.”
Blaming RFK Jr.
While Shapiro played coy about the details surrounding the supposed measles fatalities, he was the exact opposite when it came time to assign blame.
Faster than one could say “Great American State Fair,” Shapiro launched a verbal assault on Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And just like that, the Pennsylvania governor’s tall tales about being unable to find support for that event celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday, Shapiro’s words would eventually raise red flags and come into question again.
Under the guise that two people died from measles in his state, Shapiro accused Kennedy of promoting “vaccine misinformation,” insinuating that Kennedy’s words caused these deaths. He said he spoke to Kennedy by phone, chastising him for his rhetoric.
“I was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids.”
“Sharing conspiracy theories and misinformation does not help the causes of public health, and it leaves people less healthy and less safe,” Shapiro continued. “And it leaves parents in a position where it’s harder for us to do our jobs to protect our children.”
There’s only one interpretation any objective person could take away from Shapiro’s comments, and that Kennedy’s words contributed to the victims being unvaccinated and subsequently dying. It was a cowardly approach, but a carefully planned one for sure. He deceptively cast blame on Kennedy and the Trump administration, creating the illusion of an imminent health crisis that’s causing people to die.
And then the facts and truth started to come out.
From measles deaths to spleen lacerations
While Shapiro was on his sanctimonious high of RFK-bashing, details of one of the deaths became public. It was revealed that one of the victims was a newborn infant. And given that newborn infants are unable to be vaccinated at all, Shapiro’s tall tales seemed to have once again landed him in hot water.
Similar to when he asserted that no businesses would support the Pennsylvania booth at the Great American State Fair, Shapiro’s words appear to have been dishonest. He said the fatalities were due to not being vaccinated.
As any human knows, a newborn infant cannot be vaccinated, an important tidbit of information Shapiro purposely glossed over.
Then, even more details began to emerge about this particular case — and none of them made Shapiro look any better. In fact, the subsequent details about the newborn infant in question who died at birth made Shapiro look like a lying, deceitful, manipulative, and immoral opportunistic politician.
Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni revealed that his office was investigating the death of a newborn who died from a ruptured spleen but had tested positive for measles. But Diamantoni, during a later interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, revealed that the cause of death of the newborn infant was not actually measles but rather the laceration of the infant’s spleen. There were measles antibodies present in the postmortem testing, but the doctor said that the spleen laceration caused the death.
Measles and spleens
There are medical cases in which measles infection in humans can cause enlargement of the spleen. It is rare, but there are records of it happening. The presence of measles in the infant could have contributed to an enlarged spleen and, subsequently, to the laceration.
However, the doctor said he did not find evidence of the deceased infant having an enlarged spleen. There are further analyses of the infant that could change that assessment, and, reportedly, those will be done, but at present, it is not believed to be the case.
There is currently no evidence that shows the measles caused the spleen laceration. All medical examinations and analyses at this time showed the opposite, according to Diamantoni. This is important because the information and these crucial details directly contradict what Shapiro claimed.
Granted, it could turn out that the measles infection did contribute to the infant’s death. But at this moment, that is information that Shapiro doesn’t know.
So, even if measles is proven to be the cause, it is obvious that Shapiro, at best, did not have all the facts and made an erroneous claim. At worst, Shapiro misled the public purposely to advance a political and ideological attack. Given his antics about the Great American State Fair, it’s hard not to believe the latter.
Shapiro’s penchant for lies and dishonesty
Shapiro likes to tout himself as a political moderate. Many Democrats and media members have repeated this deception. It’s all part of his political persona. However, as Shapiro has shown throughout his political career, the notion that he is a moderate is a well-rehearsed facade. He is as radically extreme and a hard-liner as any Democrat presently in politics. He is just better at hiding it.
Shapiro’s briefing and words were nothing more than performative nonsense meant to elicit fear and hysteria in an attempt to discredit Kennedy and the Trump administration. He exploited the tragic death of an infant for political gain. It’s indicative of his duplicity and the depths to which he will sink to scare the population into compliance with his biased ideological beliefs.
CORONER CLAIMS ONE OF PENNSYLVANIA’S MEASLES DEATHS WAS ACTUALLY DUE TO LACERATED SPLEEN
Shapiro should suffer repercussions for his despicable dishonesty and attempted deception. He sought to fearmonger and scare the population into thinking a deadly measles outbreak was beginning by not telling the population all of the facts. Given his recent history of adamant deception, it is my opinion that this was done purposely, motivated by a deep ideological hatred for the current presidential administration, with the overall objective to exploit this tragic death for political gain.
It takes a really low human being to exploit the tragic death of a newborn. Shapiro and his trail of duplicity and deception showed that no tragedy is off-limits so long as he can use it to manipulate the populace.
