The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine is not deadly, a top Trump administration official said on Aug. 23.
“The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said during an appearance on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
President Donald Trump told reporters earlier in the month that he was signing an executive order calling to separate the MMR components into separate shots because “together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal.”
He added later: “What I’ve heard is that there are some people that say it is that way and I say, well, let’s say there’s a five percent chance of it, let’s split it up.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai later told The Epoch Times via email: “President Trump is one of countless parents who have voiced questions and concerns about the combined MMR vaccine. The Administration’s push to develop separate vaccinations for all three diseases will give parents more options on timing and frequency for their children, which ultimately will increase vaccination rates for all three diseases.”
The host of the CBS show asked Oz about Trump’s comments during Sunday’s appearance. After saying the vaccine is not lethal, Oz noted that some other countries offer standalone measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines.
“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.
Some people have died after receiving the MMR vaccine, according to reports lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which accepts reports from family members, healthcare professionals, and others.
Researchers who have been outspoken about vaccine risks, including cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, said in a preprint paper released in February that they identified 299 U.S. deaths associated with measles vaccination in the United States and reported to VAERS, including 120 that took place within a week of vaccination. They said the data served as a “serious mortality safety signal” for the MMR vaccine and another version of the combination shot, which also includes a varicella component.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helps manage VAERS and investigate reports of death, did not respond to an inquiry asking whether it has determined that any of the deaths could have been or were caused by vaccination.
The CDC recommends most children receive two doses of a measles vaccine, including a dose around their first birthday.
“There have been no deaths shown to be related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people,” the Infectious Disease Society of America, an outside group that has been critical of vaccine policies during the Trump administration, says on its website. “There have been rare cases of deaths from vaccine side effects among children who are immune compromised, which is why it is recommended that they don’t get the vaccine.”
The society recommends virtually all other people receive the vaccine.