Oz Refutes Trump’s Claim That MMR Vaccine Is Lethal

During a Sunday interview on CBS News’s *Face the Nation*, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), stated that the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine “is not a lethal vaccine.” His comment directly contradicted President Donald Trump’s earlier assertion that the combined shot “could be quite lethal” and his executive order urging the separation of the MMR components into three distinct vaccinations.

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In August, the White House signed an executive order revising the federal childhood-immunization schedule. The order recommends that physicians split the MMR vaccine—available as a single combined product in the United States since 1971—into separate measles, mumps, and rubella shots once manufacturers can supply them domestically. It also calls for spacing all childhood vaccines “to the maximum extent feasible” and reduces the routine schedule to 11 core vaccines. Japan banned the combined MMR vaccine in 1993 after a strain of mumps caused aseptic meningitis, opting for separate measles and rubella shots with an optional mumps dose.

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Dr.

USA Today

CDC data as of August 20 shows 2,777 confirmed measles cases nationwide, representing 94 % of all reported cases and spanning 36 new outbreaks this year. Approximately 92 % of U.S. kindergarteners received the MMR vaccine during the prior school year, short of the 95 % herd-immunity threshold cited by public-health officials.

Newsweek

• “We want it in three separate vaccinations given at separate times,” — President Trump, contradicting president — President Donald Trump, contradicting president

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