The Family at the Center of Pennsylvania's Measles Controversy

An Amish couple in Pennsylvania lost their newborn baby boy after the mother got measles late in her pregnancy. The baby was born on August 14 and died within half an hour. Without knowing it, the family became the center of a major political fight about measles deaths in the state.

A reporter visited the family's farm, which sits at the end of a long gravel driveway. The father — called John to protect the family's privacy — came out of his barn wearing a straw hat, black pants, and suspenders. Like most Amish people, John and his wife Anna do not watch TV, use the internet, or read newspapers.

Because of this, the couple had no idea their baby's death had become big news. Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, held a press conference to announce the first two measles-related deaths in the state in 35 years. Both people who died were from Lancaster County, which has the largest Amish community in the country and has been hit hardest by the outbreak.

After the governor spoke, his opponents accused him of using the deaths for political gain. The county coroner said an infant had tested positive for measles, but that the cause of death was a ruptured spleen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, mocked the governor on social media and even claimed, without any proof, that the deaths might have been made up.

John and Anna's farm is a peaceful place, with 45 acres of corn, hay, and tobacco. They have a garden and a small chicken coop, and they have lived there for 20 years. The couple has 13 children, some of whom listened from the porch while others peeked through the screen windows during the reporter's visit.

About a month before the baby was born, measles began spreading through their community, with more than 210 cases recorded in Lancaster County this year. Besides John, no one in the family had been vaccinated. Anna worried about getting sick but felt she could not avoid it, since so many people around her were already infected.

A few weeks before the baby was due, one of their older children got measles, and the rest of the family followed. Anna became very ill — she ran a high fever, struggled to keep food and water down, and could only speak in a whisper. The day before she gave birth, she went to a clinic to get fluids through an IV.

The baby was delivered at a birthing center by a midwife who had helped at all of Anna's other births — and even Anna's own birth. The boy weighed seven pounds and was born just after 5 p.m. Right away, the family knew something was wrong, because the baby had a pulse but was not breathing. Paramedics arrived quickly and tried oxygen and gentle chest compressions, but the baby died in less than half an hour.

As John and Anna spoke with the reporter, their one-year-old played with a toy horse and buggy nearby. The parents were calm but deeply sad. 'There's nothing we can do about it,' Anna said, and John said he saw the loss as part of God's plan.

Neither John nor Anna has strong feelings about vaccines — they simply never vaccinated most of their children, without making it a political statement. Pennsylvania allows parents to skip vaccines for their children if they have religious or moral objections. Only about 25 percent of Amish people in Lancaster County received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine last year.

John and Anna did not know who Governor Shapiro or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were. John had received a voicemail from someone saying a man named Kennedy wanted to talk, but he did not call back. They believed Anna's severe measles illness had contributed to their baby's death — and so did the midwife who delivered him.

The public debate has focused on the baby's ruptured spleen, which the coroner says was not caused by measles. However, some doctors argue that measles can affect the spleen even if it does not look enlarged. A ruptured spleen is extremely rare in newborns, and the family did not even know about this detail until the reporter told them.

John and Anna's baby was returned to the family on August 17 and is buried in a small cemetery a few miles from their home. A fresh mound of dirt marks his grave, with wooden stakes at each end — one scrawled with the word 'sillborn' and his father's name. The grave is simple and quiet, a very different scene from the loud political debate that has surrounded his short life.