Dr. Oz Says ‘The MMR Vaccine is Not a Lethal Vaccine’ — After Being Confronted on Trump’s False Suggestion That it Could Be ‘Quite Lethal’

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Trump administration’s Medicaid and Medicare administrator, admitted on Sunday’s Face The Nation that the MMR vaccine is not “lethal,” as President Donald Trump has suggested.

Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan confronted Oz with the contradictory claims.

“The CDC released new numbers last week showing 92% of the nation’s kindergartners were vaccinated for measles in the last school year, but that’s below the 95% herd immunity threshold,” Brennan said. “Now, the administration has started really encouraging people to get the MMR vaccine, but President Trump also said this. Take a listen.”

Brennan played video of Trump saying:

In three separate vaccinations, given at separate times, together there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal, And separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective. So the MMR, we want to have separate, separate visits, separate times.

“The president twice said the shot may be lethal. Do you want to clarify that?” she asked Dr. Oz.

“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,” Dr. Oz answered.

BRENNAN: On the MMR vaccine, specifically?

DR. OZ: On the MMR vaccine, but all the vaccines. My job is to —

BRENNAN: But he said it was the MMR vaccine, he used the term “lethal.” That’s what I’m asking you to clarify.

DR. OZ: The president wants Americans, and he said this many times, to get vaccinated as their doctors recommend, as long as they have a choice in the matter, 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. And Margaret, here’s the real issue —

BRENNAN: The MMR vaccine is not offered in three separate shots. Merck, which produces it, said they couldn’t offer that for another 10 years. Currently, it is only offered as a single shot. The president called that single shot lethal. Do you want to clarify that?

DR. OZ: No, the MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine, and it is offered in other countries. The measles, in particular, separately, like in Japan.

Brennan added, “And they had problems with it in Japan once they started separating things out.”

Fact-checkers and even the CDC itself have debunked the president’s claim — with the CDC calling the MMR vaccine “very safe.”

Watch the clip above via CBS News’s Face The Nation.

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