Trump called the MMR shot potentially lethal on camera. Then his own Medicare chief had to walk it back: ‘Not a lethal vaccine’

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. Host Margaret Brennan asked him three times to address recent remarks by President Donald Trump about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Brennan pressed Oz on Trump’s comments that the combined shot carried a possibility of being lethal. Oz eventually stated, “The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine.” Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order to overhaul the government’s vaccine recommendations. 

The order included a plan to split the MMR vaccine into multiple separate shots. During the signing, Trump asserted there is a “possibility they are quite lethal” when given together. He added that separately, “they are not at all lethal but very effective.” 

Brennan presses Oz on the president’s earlier vaccine remarks

Brennan opened the exchange by noting that the president had twice said the shot may be lethal. She asked Oz if he wanted to clarify that. Oz began to respond that officials want patients to make decisions, but Brennan cut him off and repeated the request for clarification.

Oz then said the president wants Americans to get vaccinated as their doctors recommend, “as long as they have a choice in the matter.” He added that many states have not clarified that, making it harder for parents to ask difficult questions. This is not the first time Trump has made a controversial claim about established science, such as when he declared climate science a hoax. 

Brennan followed up by stating that the MMR vaccine is not offered in three separate shots and that Merck could not offer that option. She noted the president had called the single shot lethal and again asked Oz to clarify. At that point, Oz stated, “The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine.”

According to Politico, the Merck MMR vaccine has been in use for more than 40 years. Since 2021, more than 800 million doses of the vaccine have been reportedly administered across more than 75 countries. Two versions of the combined vaccine are available in the United States, but individual shots for each disease are not.

Trump’s executive order came at a time when concerns existed around measles outbreaks in the nation. The exchange marked the second time this month that Brennan has questioned administration health officials on related issues. The scrutiny of Trump’s health has extended beyond policy, as he recently returned to the hospital for a third full exam in 13 months. 

She previously conducted a tense interview with Jay Bhattacharya, the National Institutes of Health director. Separately this month, CNN’s Dana Bash held a strained interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on some of the same topics.