WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior U.S. Health official on Sunday urged Americans to receive vaccinated against measles as outbreaks continue in multiple states, raising concerns the country could lose its measles elimination status. The resurgence of this highly contagious disease highlights the importance of vaccination for public health protection.
“Take the vaccine, please,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We have a solution for our problem.”
Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, also supported recent revisions to some federal vaccine recommendations, as well as past comments made by President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Regarding vaccine effectiveness. He emphasized the importance of vaccination specifically for measles.
“Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “But measles is one you should get your vaccine.”
An outbreak in South Carolina, affecting hundreds of individuals, has surpassed the number of cases recorded in the 2025 Texas outbreak. Another outbreak has been identified along the Utah-Arizona border, and several other states have reported confirmed cases this year. Children have been disproportionately affected by these outbreaks, which are occurring as skepticism toward vaccines grows.
When asked if people should fear measles, Oz responded, “Oh, of course.” He affirmed that Medicare and Medicaid will continue to cover the measles vaccine as part of their insurance programs.
“There will never be a barrier for Americans to access the measles vaccine. And We see part of the routine schedule,” Oz stated.
Oz also noted that they “have advocated for the measles vaccine from the beginning” and that Kennedy “has been at the forefront of this.”
Questions regarding vaccines arose later in an interview with Kennedy on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing,” where he was asked about his potential Super Bowl snack choice (likely yogurt) and revealed he eats steak with sauerkraut in the mornings.
Critics of Kennedy have argued that the Health Secretary’s long-standing skepticism toward U.S. Vaccine recommendations and past support for unsubstantiated claims linking vaccines to autism could influence official public health guidance, potentially contradicting medical consensus.
Oz argued that Kennedy’s position was supportive of the measles vaccine despite his broader comments about the recommended vaccine schedule.
“When the first outbreak occurred in Texas, he said, get vaccinated against measles, because that’s an example of an ailment against which you should get vaccinated,” Oz explained.
The Republican administration last month removed some vaccine recommendations for children, a revision of the traditional vaccine schedule that the Department of Health and Human Services said was in response to a request from Trump. Trump had asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. Guidance accordingly.
States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. Whereas federal requirements often influence state regulations, some states have begun to create their own alliances to counter White House guidance on vaccines.
Vaccination rates in the U.S. Have declined, and the proportion of children with exemptions has reached a historic high, according to federal data. Simultaneously, rates of diseases preventable by vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are increasing nationwide. This trend underscores the critical need for maintaining high vaccination coverage rates.
Kennedy’s Past Anti-Vaccine Activism
Kennedy’s past skepticism regarding vaccines has been under scrutiny since Trump first nominated him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
During his Senate confirmation hearing last year, Kennedy told legislators that a 2019 trip he took to Samoa, which came under close examination before a devastating measles outbreak, “had nothing to do with vaccines.”
However, documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine that testimony. Emails sent by U.S. Embassy and United Nations staff indicated that Kennedy sought meetings with senior Samoan officials during his trip to the Pacific island nation.
Samoan officials later stated that Kennedy’s trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists before the measles outbreak, which sickened thousands and killed 83, mostly children under five years old.
Contradictory Messaging on Autism and Vaccines
Oz’s comments mark a broader pattern among government officials of expressing discordant and sometimes contradictory statements about vaccine effectiveness amid a review of U.S. Health policy. Officials have walked a fine line in criticizing U.S. Vaccine policy in the past, often appearing to express sympathy for unfounded conspiracy theories from anti-vaccine activists while also not distancing themselves too far from established science.
During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said that no single vaccine causes autism, but did not rule out the possibility that research could find that some combination of vaccines could have negative health effects.
Kennedy, in his Senate testimony, has argued that a link between vaccines and autism has not been disproven. He has previously claimed that some vaccine components, such as a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal, can cause childhood neurological disorders like autism. Most measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines do not contain thimerosal. A federal vaccine advisory committee reviewed by Kennedy last year voted to stop recommending vaccines containing thimerosal.
Government public health officials often cite the need to restore trust in public health systems after the coronavirus pandemic, when vaccine policy and the overall public health response to the deadly pandemic became a highly polarized issue in American politics.
During the pandemic, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the public health system also spread, and old anti-vaccine activist groups saw an increase in general public interest. Kennedy, who for years led the anti-vaccine activist group Children’s Health Defense, has been criticized for ordering reviews of vaccines and public health guidelines that leading medical research groups have considered established science.
Public health experts also criticized the president for making unsubstantiated claims about highly politicized health issues. During an event in the Oval Office in September, Trump claimed without evidence that Tylenol and vaccines are linked to an increase in the incidence of autism in the United States.
___
This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence tools.
