Two weeks ago, Donald Trump launched an indefensible broadside designed to upend the childhood vaccine schedule. The accompanying White House event was a misinformation extravaganza. The president claimed, for example, that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines can possibly be “quite lethal” when combined into a single shot.
Asked if he had any evidence whatsoever to back that up, the Republican replied, “No, what I’ve heard is that there are, there are some people that say it is that way.” (He didn’t say who was included among “some people.”)
A day later, Trump kept this going, again falsely arguing, “MMR, if you give them separately, the M, the M and the R, it’s fine. When you put them together, they’re sort of like a nuclear weapon, according to some.” (He again failed to explain who’s included among these unidentified “some.”)
There is no question that the president’s comments were preposterous nonsense. There is some question, however, about who’s willing to admit that his comments were preposterous nonsense.
With this in mind, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former television personality who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sat down with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on the latest episode of “Face the Nation,” and the host pressed her guest on this very point.
“The president twice said the shot may be ‘lethal,’” Brennan said. “Do you want to clarify that?”
Oz didn’t appear eager to answer the question directly, instead saying something vague about “autonomy.” To her credit, the host pressed further, asking specifically about the MMR vaccines.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator again dodged, saying the agency he helps lead simply pays for the vaccines.
So, Brennan kept going, reminding Oz that Trump used the term “lethal” and again asked him to clarify. He again dodged, talking about the importance of “choice.”
For the fourth time, the “Face the Nation” host tried to get a straight answer. This time, Oz relented.
“No,” he finally answered. “The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine.”
Perhaps he’ll get away with this transgression — members of Team Trump are generally prohibited from acknowledging reality after the president has spoken — but if some anti-Oz statements start showing up on Trump’s social media platform, at least we’ll know why.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Mehmet Oz disputes Trump’s false claim, concedes the MMR vaccine is not ‘lethal’ appeared first on MS NOW.
