Washington, August 23, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A senior Trump administration health official has rejected the suggestion that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is lethal, clarifying remarks by President Donald Trump as US childhood vaccination rates fell below the level considered necessary for herd immunity.
Dr Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, made the clarification after being repeatedly questioned about Trump’s description of the vaccine during an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation.
“No, the MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine,” Oz said.
New figures from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 92 per cent of kindergarten children received measles vaccination during the last school year, below the 95 per cent coverage generally considered necessary for herd immunity.
The Trump administration has encouraged Americans to receive the MMR vaccine. Trump, however, has said that the three components should be administered separately.
“In three separate vaccinations, given at separate times, together there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal,” Trump said in a recorded clip aired during the programme. He added that separately administered vaccines appeared to be “not at all lethal” and advocated separate visits for the vaccinations.
CBS presenter Margaret Brennan noted that Trump had twice suggested the combined vaccine could be lethal and pointed out that the MMR vaccine is not currently available in the United States as three separate injections. She said its manufacturer, Merck, could not provide separate vaccines for another decade.
Oz said the administration wanted patients to receive treatments recommended by their doctors while ensuring parents retained the right to decide which vaccines their children received.
“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,” Oz said.
Oz pointed to Japan as an example of a country where measles vaccines are administered separately. Brennan countered that Japan had encountered problems after separating the vaccines and that the change had increased costs.
Oz said the federal government would continue to pay for vaccines for children from low-income families regardless of how the vaccinations were administered.
“We’re going to pay for the vaccines no matter what,” he said.
He said the broader issue was whether parents should have the right to question vaccination recommendations and seek religious or other exemptions from state vaccination requirements.
The MMR vaccine protects against three contagious viral diseases. Measles can cause serious complications, including pneumonia and inflammation of the brain, and can be fatal, particularly among young children and people with weakened immune systems.
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