Health official’s endorsement comes as South Carolina faces hundreds of cases and US risks losing elimination status

Health official’s endorsement comes as South Carolina faces hundreds of cases and US risks losing elimination status

A senior US public health official called on Americans to get vaccinated against measles as outbreaks continue in multiple states and concerns grow that the country could lose its measles elimination designation. Dr Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, spoke in support on Sunday of the measles vaccine.

“Take the vaccine, please,” said Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We have a solution for our problem.”

“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.”

His boss, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, has a long history of questioning both the safety and necessity of vaccines.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      24·
      9 days ago

      For anyone unfamiliar with him

      The host of the show is Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon who developed an affinity for alternative medicine.[1] Throughout its run, various episodes and segment features have been vastly criticized for a lack of scientific credibility about the medical claims on the show. A 2014 study concluded that less than half the claims made on The Dr. Oz Show were backed by “some” evidence, and that fell to a third when the threshold was raised to “believable” evidence.[2] The website Science-Based Medicine goes even further, claiming: "No other show on television can top The Dr. Oz Show for the sheer magnitude of bad health advice it consistently offers, all while giving everything a veneer of credibility

      On January 4, 2010, Oz endorsed spacing out childhood vaccines, a common anti-vaccine trope based on the false premise that the immune systems of children are incapable of responding to multiple vaccines at once, and said that his children had not been vaccinated against H1N1.[4] He also expressed suggestions that MMR vaccination may be linked to autism, infamously based on a fraudulent paper by Andrew Wakefield. However, in 2019, Oz endorsed MMR vaccination and encouraged his viewers to vaccinate themselves and their children against mumps, measles, and rubella.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_claims_on_The_Dr._Oz_Show

      • Bone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        9 days ago

        He’s a stupid snake that has said all kinds of conflicting things, and no one should believe him.

    • LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      21·
      9 days ago

      Lmao I know right? So these fuckos made vaccines political with their dumb ass shit, and are now seeing that ‘Oh enmmm geeeeee, people aren’t taking the vaccine and they are going to give me measles!’

      Fucking morons. Vaccines are a modern marvel, work, and are overwhelmingly safe. Get your vaccines, protect yourself and those who cant get them.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.todayEnglish
        6·
        9 days ago

        also measles is more “severe” than covid/flu too. and dangerous to adults who never had it for some reason. chickenpox is another one that is pretty mild for children, but dangerous to adults.

      • PunnyName@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        8 days ago

        Ah, but somewhere that I can’t actually show you, told me there could be arsenic in the vaccines, so I don’t get them. You know, for health reasons.

        I fucking hate it here.