The administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has advised people to get a vaccine for measles in response to a rise in cases nationwide, mainly in South Carolina.
“Take the vaccine, please,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator, said in a CNN interview on Sunday, responding to a question about cases in South Carolina and elsewhere. “We have a solution for our problem.”
Oz said that “not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” adding, “but measles is one you should get your vaccine.”
As of Feb. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that 733 measles cases have been reported in the United States for 2026. According to the agency, 3 percent of the cases resulted in hospitalization and 95 percent of the cases involved patients who did not receive a measles vaccine.
Last year, the CDC reported 2,276 measles cases across the United States, with 11 percent of those needing hospitalization.
The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have promoted vaccination in response to an ongoing measles outbreak in South Carolina but have said that officials should respect parents and individuals who don’t choose to vaccinate. State officials there have also recommended people receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine that’s commonly given to young children.
“Individuals should consult with their health care provider about what is best for them and their family,” a department spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Jan. 15.
According to a map provided by the CDC, 546 cases of measles have been reported in South Carolina as of Feb. 5. Utah has reported 72 cases, and Arizona has confirmed 25, it shows.
Multiple other states have had confirmed cases this year, according to CDC data. This comes after around 760 people were sickened with the virus in Texas last year, with officials declaring the outbreak over in August.
In September, a CDC advisory panel advised the agency to stop recommending a type of MMR vaccine that also contains a vaccine for chickenpox, known as MMRV, for children under the age of four.
President Donald Trump said in September that drug companies should break up the MMR shot into three separate doses, while saying that he doesn’t want aluminum or mercury in any vaccine.
“We want no mercury in the vaccine. We want no aluminum in the vaccine. The MMR I think should be taken separately,” Trump said at an event at the White House at the time.
Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill has signaled on social media that he would support the move to separate the vaccine doses.
Around the same time, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a Senate panel hearing that vaccines “are a critical part of public health” that “can prevent infections like measles altogether” but noted that “blind faith in vaccination alone as our only recourse against death by infection has inclined our medical system to discount the role of therapeutic drugs and vitamins and diet exercise and other lifestyle changes that might fortify human immune systems against all kinds of sickness.”
In that hearing, Kennedy also disputed assertions that vaccines have saved millions of lives and pointed to data showing there were drops in deaths from diseases prior to the mass introduction of vaccines.
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes, and a rash. The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs, and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
On Sunday, Oz told CNN that CMS, his agency, covers MMR vaccines through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and health insurance plans purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace.
“There will never be a barrier to Americans [having] access to the measles vaccine. And it is part of the core schedule,” said Oz, a heart surgeon-turned-television personality.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.