Vaccine Wars: Where The 2016 Candidates Stand On Protecting Our Health

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:06 pm

The recent measles outbreak at Disneyland has captured the attention of the news media and the American public. The publicity surrounding the outbreak has also renewed a fierce political debate over whether parents should be forced to vaccinate their children to protect public health.

The intensity of the debate has vaulted the issue into the center of the 2016 presidential debate as well. Candidates jockeying for position in the crowded, but still not clearly defined, presidential race, have been staking out positions on the vaccination debate. Voters already have information that can be used to sort out which presidential hopefuls would require vaccinations, and which ones would leave that choice up to parents.

The anti-vaccination movement is not a distinctly partisan crusade. Anti-vaxxers can line up anywhere along the political spectrum from the far right to the radical left and all points in between. However, a 2014 Pew Research poll found that Democrats were more likely to support requiring children to be vaccinated than either Independents or Republicans. A majority of Democrats, Independents and Republicans supported requiring vaccinations.

However, 34 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Independents thought parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children. A much smaller percentage of Democrats (22 percent), felt the same way.

Consequently, it should come as little surprise that presidential candidates on the GOP side are pandering to anti-vaccination voters while prominent Democratic politicians are standing on the pro-vaccination side of the debate. On Monday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) set off a social media firestorm when he argued that parents should have some measure of choice in determining whether or not to vaccinate their kids. Later in the day, Christie backtracked a bit.

While Chris Christie was “clarifying” his remarks, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) weighed in with an even more preposterous defense of individual choice, declaring:

I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. But I think the parents should have some input. The state doesn’t own your children.

As Chris Christie and Rand Paul were staking out the anti-vaccination position, Dr. Ben Carson stepped into the GOP void on the pro-vaccination side and argued unequivocally in favor of mandatory vaccinations.

The famous neurosurgeon argued:

Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society…Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them.

The debate over requiring vaccinations has been less contentious in the Democratic camp, but presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton made her position clear, in a tweet:

The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest

Current President Barack Obama has also argued forcefully that parents should get their children vaccinated.

The president said the science was “pretty indisputable”. He added:

You should get your kids vaccinated. It’s good for them. We should be able to get back to the point where measles effectively is not existing in this country.

There are number of additional high profile candidates whose positions on the vaccination debate are not yet clearly known. However, as the political season marches on, each candidate will eventually be asked to take a position on whether individual rights should trump public health.

When it comes to the question of parents vaccinating their children, voters should pay attention to what the candidates say, and then choose their presidential candidate accordingly.

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Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick's successful re-election bid in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.