Washington — Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Sunday that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — commonly called MMR — is “not a lethal vaccine,” pushing back on recent claims made by President Trump.
“No, the MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine,” Oz said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
The Trump administration has been urging parents to have their children vaccinated against measles as U.S. cases climb to their highest level in 35 years. But an executive order Mr. Trump signed earlier this month suggested the MMR vaccine should be administered as three separate shots. At the signing, Mr. Trump claimed without evidence that the combined MMR vaccine could be “lethal” if not split up. Separate versions of the vaccines are not currently available on the U.S. market.
“Together there could be a possibility they are quite lethal,” Mr. Trump said. “Separately it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective.”
Oz said Sunday that the president’s position is that Americans should “get vaccinated as their doctors recommend,” provided they retain a choice in the decision.
“We want patients to get the treatments that their doctors are recommending to them, but we also want parents to have the autonomy to decide what their kids receive,” Oz said.
He went on to argue that “the challenge we’re running into is that many states have not clarified that, and actually, it’s harder for parents to ask these difficult questions,” he claimed.
Oz said the MMR vaccine is available as separate shots in some other countries, framing the debate as part of a broader question over whether parents “have the right to ask questions.”
“The request of the president is to make sure that states offer parents either eligibility because of religious beliefs or other reasons why they may not want to have their kids take all the vaccines in order,” he said.
The comments come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new figures last week that show 92.4% of the nation’s kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles during the 2025-2026 school year, down from 95.2% during the 2019–2020 school year. The most recent figures fall below the 95% herd immunity threshold.
