Dr. Oz was busy touting the expansion of the Trump administration’s initiative to promote transparency around drug prices when he got cornered on the measles outbreak and his vaccine views.
Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, appeared on MS NOW on Tuesday to parrot talking points about TrumpRx, a website that helps Americans find the best deals for their medications, which was expanded by President Donald Trump in a ceremony on Monday.
“We’re gonna put as many drugs as possible on the platform using as many partners as possible,” Oz, 65, told Morning Joe’s Jonathan Lemire. “We’ve never had a solution like this for pharmaceutical products, which ends up being one of the most painful financial challenges to the American people who are struggling with affordability.”
“The kinds of things we’re doing are going to also affect the actual fundamental challenges to chronic illness in America,” he added. “This is part of the MAHA movement. And the MAHA movement really is about making it easier to be healthy in America.”
But Oz’s mention of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement set him up for a follow-up about his own vaccine beliefs.
“So Dr. Oz, you mentioned chronic illnesses,” Lemire began, pointing out that the U.S. has been seeing an uptick in certain diseases, including measles, thanks in part to Kennedy’s longtime crusade against vaccines that have sent vaccination rates plummeting.
Already, 2026 has become one of the two worst years for measles infections in the U.S. since the disease was eliminated in 2002, an NBC News analysis found.
“You mentioned MAHA. Secretary Kennedy has been a real skeptic of vaccines, including measles. What about you, sir, and your background? Do you think Americans should be vaccinated?” Lemire asked.
“You should get your measles vaccine,” Oz responded. “This is an illness you don’t want to get. There has been an outbreak.”
The Medicare chief proceeded to insist that his boss supports vaccination against measles.
“Secretary Kennedy said the same thing, said it last year, said it this year. If you’re, you know, especially if, uh, you’re debating about what to do in the vaccine arena, at least get your vaccine for measles,” he said.
Last year, Kennedy indeed urged the public to get the measles vaccine as the U.S. began to see a worrying increase in cases. But he also denied any responsibility for the outbreak.
“I had nothing to do with the measles outbreak here,” he said last month. “We have limited our outbreak better than any country in the world.”
