Trump administration officials are now urging Americans to get their measles vaccines amid a historic outbreak.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Dr Mehmet Oz said on Sunday that the solution to a measles outbreak raging in South Carolina, America’s largest ever since the disease was declared eliminated over 20 years ago, is getting both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Federal data shows 93 percent of Americans have gotten both doses of the vaccine, which are typically given in early childhood. This, however, is below the CDC’s 95 percent threshold for herd immunity.
In South Carolina, where nearly 1,000 residents have been sickened with measles since October 2025, just 91 percent of kindergarteners have gotten both doses.
‘Take the vaccine, please,’ Oz said, also insisting there ‘will never be a barrier to Americans getting access to the measles vaccine.’
Measles is a highly infectious disease characterized by flu-like symptoms such as cough and fever, a distinctive, blotchy rash that starts in the face before spreading down the body and tiny white spots inside the mouth called Koplik spots.
In severe cases, the virus can travel to the lungs and brain, leading to pneumonia, brain swelling, seizures and death.
The measles vaccine is 97 percent effective at preventing infection, and the CDC estimates unvaccinated individuals have a 90 percent chance of contracting it if they are exposed.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Dr Mehmet Oz (pictured above last month) urged Americans to ‘take the vaccine, please’ to protect against measles amid a historic outbreak
Oz’s vaccine plea is in contrast to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has provided contradictory stances on the MMR shot during his term.
Kennedy previously chaired the anti-vaccine nonprofit called Children’s Health Defense, which advocated for an end to school vaccine requirements during the measles outbreak in 2019, when 1,261 cases of measles were reported across 31 states.
He has also previously claimed that the MMR vaccine, which is estimated to have prevented around 60 million measles deaths worldwide, was not the cause of a drop in deaths.
He also claimed that malnutrition is the cause of measles deaths.
Kennedy has additionally claimed that MMR vaccines may be linked to autism, which has long been disproven – research shows the vaccines are safe and effective.
But last year, as measles surged in West Texas, the secretary called the MMR vaccine ‘the most effective way’ to stave off the virus.
Before MMR vaccines became available in the 1960s, measles caused epidemics with up to 2.6 million global deaths every year. By 2023, that number had fallen to roughly 107,000 deaths.
The MMR shot is typically given once between ages 12 and 15 months and again between ages four and six.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr (pictured at left opposite Oz last month) has offered contradictory stances on MMR vaccination
In South Carolina, state health data shows 933 residents have been infected with measles since October 2025, 890 of whom were in Spartanburg County.
Of those infected, 859 were unvaccinated, 20 were partially vaccinated and 29 had an unknown vaccination status. But surprisingly, 25 had received both MMR doses.
Out of 933 cases, 418 were in children ages five to 11, 242 were in children under age four, 177 were in teens ages 12 to 17, 47 were in adults ages 18 to 29, 30 were in people ages 30 to 49, five were in adults over 50 and 14 did not have their ages specified.
Nationwide data from Johns Hopkins Center for Outbreak Response Innovation shows there have been 842 cases of measles so far in 2026, 605 of which are in South Carolina.
Measles spreads through direct contact with infectious droplets or through the air. Patients with a measles infection are contagious from four days before the rash through four days after the rash appears. Enclosed areas like airports and planes are extremely risky locations for disease transmission.
Measles causes a distinctive rash as pictured above. In severe cases, it can also lead to pneumonia and brain swelling
It first invades the respiratory system, then spreads to the lymph nodes and throughout the body. As a result, the virus can affect the lungs, brain and central nervous system.
While measles sometimes causes milder symptoms, including diarrhea, sore throat and achiness, it leads to pneumonia in roughly six percent of otherwise healthy children, and more often in malnourished children.
Though the brain swelling that measles can trigger is rare, occurring in about one in 1,000 cases, it is deadly in roughly 15 to 20 percent of those who develop it, while about 20 percent are left with permanent neurological damage such as brain damage, deafness or intellectual disability.
Measles also severely damages a child’s immune system, making them susceptible to other potentially devastating bacterial and viral infections they were previously protected against.
