Dr. Oz Urges Americans to ‘Take the Vaccine, Please’ in Response to Recent Measles Outbreaks

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz responded to a recent surge in measles cases throughout America, urging Americans in a CNN interview to “take the vaccine, please.”

Oz’s comments come just days after the South Carolina Department of Public Health reported an outbreak of over 900 measles cases in the state — the largest in decades. When asked about the Trump administration’s messaging over vaccinations and his own concerns about the growing cases of Measles throughout the country, Oz offered a definitive statement.

“Take the vaccine, please. We have a solution for a problem,” the CMS administrator told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people [are] equally susceptible to those illnesses. But measles is one [where] you should get your vaccine.”

Bash pointedly broached the topic by asking Oz if he believed the recent measles outbreaks are the result of the Trump administration’s “undermining” of public support for vaccinations. “I don’t believe so,” Oz responded. The CMS administrator went on to state that the administration has been open in its support of the measles vaccine and argued that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been at the “very front of this.”

Oz’s latter remark prompted a swift expression of disbelief on Bash’s part. “Oh, come on,” the CNN anchor replied. The exchange came nearly a year after HHS Secretary Kennedy falsely claimed that the MMR vaccine — which protects against measles, mumps and rubella — was offensive to some religious groups because it contains “aborted fetus debris.”

Oz’s remarks also come just a month after the Trump administration announced changes to the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, the general structure of which has been in place since 1995, by reducing the number of universally recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. Among the vaccines removed from the universally recommended list were those designed to protect against rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and other diseases. 

Kennedy defended the change by referencing a comparison between America and Denmark’s childhood immunization schedules.

Bash pushed back on Dr. Oz’s statement about RFK Jr. by pointing to Children’s Health Defense, the non-profit activist group known for its anti-vaccine advocacy that Kennedy served as the chair of from 2015 to 2023, which tweeted on Feb. 5, “Despite the media’s scare tactics, there’s no reason to fear measles.”

When asked by Bash if people should “fear” measles, Oz said, “Oh, for sure.”

In 2025, two unvaccinated children in Texas died from a measles outbreak. Another person died from the virus in New Mexico last year. The current outbreak in South Carolina represents the largest in the U.S. since measles was declared eradicated from the country in 2000.

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