Jim Iuorio and Jeanne Ives, filling in for Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer, examined a controversy surrounding Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro after he announced what he described as the state’s first measles-associated deaths in 35 years, both involving unvaccinated individuals from Lancaster County. The hosts played audio of a Lancaster County health official offering a far more detailed account of one of the deaths, a newborn whose autopsy showed a laceration of the spleen with massive bleeding as the actual cause of death. According to the official, tissue testing did confirm the presence of measles in the infant, but the spleen showed no signs of infection, enlargement, or inflammation, and the forensic pathologist concluded the ruptured spleen was not complicated by measles. The official also said the source of the infant’s measles exposure remains unknown.
To unpack the story, the hosts brought on Alex Berenson, author of “Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over Our Government, Rights, and Lives” and writer of the Substack newsletter Unreported Truth. Berenson said the episode echoed patterns seen during the pandemic, when he said public health officials and media outlets inflated case and death counts by categorizing any death of a person who tested positive as a death caused by the virus. He said the Lancaster County official’s detailed account made a persuasive case that measles played no role in the infant’s death, and cautioned that measles, while a real and occasionally serious illness, does not currently constitute a major public health threat in the United States. Berenson said he supports the measles vaccine and is vaccinated himself, but argued the country would not face a public health crisis even if vaccination rates dipped somewhat, since the disease is not circulating widely enough to pose that kind of danger.
Berenson argued that the push to elevate the story was less about pharmaceutical industry influence, since the measles vaccine is not a significant revenue driver, and more about a broader effort to damage the credibility of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration. He said the pattern of exaggeration matters because it reinforces a habit of dishonesty that extends to other, more consequential debates, including his continued concerns about mRNA COVID vaccines for children. He noted that Illinois’s Department of Human Services still lists a recommendation for infants six months and older to receive a COVID vaccine, which he called an example of outdated guidance persisting despite falling uptake nationwide. Berenson said pediatric and overall COVID vaccination rates have dropped sharply, and argued the country avoided another major COVID wave last winter because of widespread natural and hybrid immunity built up over time, not because of continued vaccination campaigns.
The conversation also touched on immigration enforcement and vaccination requirements, with one host describing frustration over a family member abroad who has been unable to secure a green card renewal because she has declined to complete a required vaccine schedule, despite decades of paying U.S. taxes and owning property jointly with a military veteran spouse. Berenson connected part of the broader measles conversation to unvaccinated migrants entering the country, while emphasizing that the core issue remains public officials’ willingness to make sweeping claims without confirming the underlying facts.
On why Shapiro made the initial announcement, Berenson said he doubted it reflected a coordinated plan so much as officials seizing on an opportunity without doing their homework, noting that no one in the United States had died from measles in 2026 prior to this case despite extensive media coverage treating the disease as an ongoing crisis. He said officials and outlets that jumped on the story now appear reluctant to walk it back, and argued that corrections rarely reach the same audience as the original, more dramatic headline. Both hosts and Berenson agreed that alternative outlets, including talk radio, the platform X, and independent newsletters like his own, have become essential venues for surfacing information that legacy media and government officials are reluctant to highlight.
Looking back at the broader pandemic response, Berenson said COVID was a real illness that did cause deaths, but argued the government’s reaction dramatically worsened outcomes by abandoning earlier commitments to keep society functioning normally absent mass casualties in the streets. He pointed to financial incentives for hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, along with political motivations tied to both opposing Donald Trump and deflecting scrutiny from the origins of the virus, as factors that fueled an atmosphere of panic. He said the lasting toll includes children who suffered significant disruptions to their support systems and some adults who remain persistently fearful of ordinary social interaction years later, which he described as a product of a public health response that ultimately prioritized protecting the elderly over the developmental and psychological needs of younger generations.
Berenson closed the interview by noting an upcoming trip to Chicago in early November to speak to a group connected to the Brownstone Institute, prompting an invitation from the hosts to visit the station in person.