Newborns at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia may have been exposed to measles a year after Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) dismissed the hospital’s concerns about vaccines.
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health said Thursday that people in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit and three other areas may have been exposed on Friday, Sept. 11, PhillyVoice reported.
A person who visited the hospital that day has since tested positive for measles, the health department told CBS News Philadelphia. The other areas were the unit’s family lounge, the hospital atrium and the main cafeteria, the health department said.
The exposure windows ran from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., officials said, except in the cafeteria, where the risk period was 12:05 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. The unit’s infants are receiving a preventive antibody treatment meant to prevent the illness or reduce its severity, the health department said.
Babies younger than 12 months are too young for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, health officials said, and the first dose is recommended between 12 and 15 months.
Leaders at the hospital, known as CHOP, sought repeated meetings with Fetterman in September 2025 over worries about vaccines and Medicaid cuts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 3. The newspaper based its account on interviews with more than a dozen former staffers and lawmakers, along with text messages and other internal records.
“Why do I have to keep having to meet with chop,” Fetterman wrote to an aide, according to messages reviewed by the Journal.
“Because they are worried about vaccines and Medicaid cuts,” the aide replied.
“Well I’m not,” Fetterman wrote back. In a later message, he added, “I’m convinced they just want free trips to DC.”
Fetterman apologized for the remark on Sept. 6, telling CNN in a statement that it was a “dumb joke” and that he had met with hospital officials both virtually and in person.
“My office and I always have, and always will, advocate for CHOP, support their requests and any other needs that we can assist with,” he said.
He also called the Journal’s report a “hit piece from disgruntled staffers” and said the text messages were “stripped of any context and circumstances,” CNN reported.
Pennsylvania is in the middle of its largest measles outbreak in decades, with 731 cases and 141 hospitalizations reported statewide this year, PhillyVoice reported.
Four people in the state have died of measles-associated causes this year, the state’s first such deaths in 35 years, the outlet reported.
Fewer than 1% of the cases have been among fully vaccinated people, according to the outlet.
“We encourage people to get vaccinated not only to protect themselves, but to protect those who cannot get vaccinated,” Philadelphia Health Commissioner Palak Raval-Nelson said in a statement.
The virus spreads through the air and can linger in a room for up to two hours after an infected person leaves, officials said.
Anyone who was in the exposed areas should watch for fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes, followed by a rash through Oct. 2, officials said.
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