Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid, made a remark Sunday that caught CNN’s Dana Bash so off guard that it instantly upended the otherwise friendly interview.
Oz was speaking to the Trump administration’s push for more transparency in health care costs before Bash asked him to comment on the nationwide surge in measles cases, with South Carolina reporting 920 cases of the respiratory virus on Friday, its highest numbers since the disease was declared eradicated more than three decades ago.
“Is this a consequence of the administration undermining support or advocacy for measles and other vaccines?” Bash asked Oz.
“I don't believe so,” he answered. “We've advocated for measles vaccines all along; [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy's been at the very front of this.”
The notion that RFK Jr., among the most prominent promoters of vaccine misinformation, was at the “very front” of vaccine advocacy, left Bash taken aback.
“Oh, come on!” Bash uttered.
For years, RFK Jr. has floated debunked theories about vaccines, including that vaccine use can cause autism. The notion that RFK Jr. was “at the very front” of vaccine advocacy was challenged by Bash, who cited a recent social media post from Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group founded by RFK Jr. and run by him until 2023.
“Despite the media's scare tactics, there's no reason to fear measles,” the organization wrote in a social media post on X last week, a post that was flagged with X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking service for containing misinformation.
“Should people fear measles?” Bash bluntly asked Oz.
“Oh, for sure,” Oz conceded.