‘Take the vaccine’: Dr Oz urges Americans to get vaccinated as US measles cases surge
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On Feb 8, Dr Mehmet Oz urged Americans to get vaccinated against the measles as an outbreak rages in South Carolina.
PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES
Teddy Rosenbluth
WASHINGTON – Dr Mehmet Oz urged Americans on Feb 8 to get vaccinated against measles, marking one of the strongest endorsements yet from a top health official in the Trump administration.
Speaking on CNN, Dr Oz, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that there was a simple solution to the raging measles outbreak in South Carolina, which has infected more than 900 people and become the largest US outbreak in recent history.
“Take the vaccine, please,” Dr Oz said. He also pledged that there “will never be a barrier to Americans getting access to the measles vaccine”.
His comments were far more unambiguous than those made in the past by his boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has carefully crafted his public statements about the measles shot.
Mr Kennedy has often paired his calls for vaccination with reminders that the decision is a personal choice or with safety concerns about the shots.
The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is considered very safe and about 97 per cent effective in preventing infection.
Dr Oz’s statements came as the country struggles to contain the highly contagious virus,
The US is now at risk of losing its elimination status, a designation given to countries that have not had continuous measles spread for more than a year.
Measles has been eliminated in the US since 2000.
Professor Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, likened Dr Oz’s comments to taking a garden hose to a forest fire.
“When you cast those kinds of doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness, one interview on one news show is not going to move the needle,” he said.
Prof Osterholm argued that Mr Kennedy began sowing distrust in the vaccine soon after he was confirmed in February 2025.
As measles spread through west Texas, Mr Kennedy appeared on national television, encouraging vaccination and then, almost in the same breath, raising questions about its safety.
“We don’t know the risks of many of these products because they’re not safety tested,” he said in April.
As the outbreak swelled and crossed state borders, he spoke of “miraculous” alternative remedies and promised to explore potential new treatments for the disease, a move public health experts said signalled to Americans that vaccines were not necessary.
Mr Kennedy and other top health officials have taken other actions that experts believe could negatively affect MMR vaccination rates, which have been declining for years.
In November, Mr Kennedy instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, despite the fact that large-scale studies have found no link between the shot and autism.
One of his appointees, who leads the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans, said in January that shots against measles should be optional.
Mr Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the department’s leadership had consistently emphasised that the vaccine was the best way to prevent the spread of measles.
During the interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash, Dr Oz also defended Mr Kennedy’s track record.
“We’ve advocated for measles vaccines all along,” he said. “Secretary Kennedy’s been at the very front of this,” he added.
“Oh, come on,” Ms Bash responded. NYTIMES
