A slew of Republicans eyeing the White House rushed to praise the virtues of vaccination on Tuesday — distancing themselves from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who had appeared to question their safety as health officials across the country move to contain an outbreak of measles.
It was yet another case where Paul, an ophthalmologist by training who insisted Tuesday that he’d been misunderstood, has found himself isolated on a subject within the likely GOP presidential field. But it also showed that vaccines, like a number of other scientific issues, could prove a delicate topic for Republicans who must cater to a conservative base that is suspicious of anything that smacks of a government demand.
A review of statements this week by 11 potential GOP 2016ers, including several issued directly to POLITICO, found that only one — retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — has gone so far as to say certain vaccines should be required regardless of individual liberties. Others — such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — expressed their personal support for vaccinations through spokesmen, but didn’t say anything about mandating them.
And some, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, praised vaccines but deferred to the states on setting the rules. “Now, most states also include an exception clause for good faith, religious convictions,” Cruz said. “And that’s an appropriate judgment for a state to make at a public health level.”
The measles outbreak is believed to be fueled in large part by a growing number of parents, many in liberal-leaning communities, who have opted against vaccinating their children. In an interview on Sunday, President Barack Obama said the science surrounding vaccines was “indisputable” and urged parents to get their children properly vaccinated.
Soon afterward, Republicans began to weigh in, and some stumbled.
Asked Monday in England about the matter, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie noted that his kids had been vaccinated but added, “I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”
Christie’s answer prompted a backlash, and his office quickly issued a statement saying, “with a disease like measles, there is no question kids should be vaccinated. At the same time, different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate.”
The New Jersey governor’s calls for “balance” drew criticism from those who noted that last fall he had forced a nurse who had returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa into a quarantine, despite the advice of public health officials who said she posed no risk. The nurse herself blasted Christie again on Tuesday over vaccines.
Paul, meanwhile, came out strongly in favor of parental choice in media appearances Monday, saying that while he was not anti-vaccine, he had clashed with doctors on when to administer them to his children. He also said that had had “heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,” and that “for the most part vaccines should be voluntary.”
By Tuesday, Paul was insisting his comments on vaccines had been misconstrued: “I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporally related — I did not allege causation,” he said, though he did not say if he believed any vaccines should be required.
Paul, claimed Monday that vaccines can cause 'profound mental disorders.' Paul, in an often contentious interview with CNBC, argued that parents should have a choice whether to vaccinate their children. 'I've heard of many tragic cases of walking talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,' Paul said.
The libertarian-leaning senator has taken several positions that have put him at odds with most of the emerging GOP field in recent months. For instance, he has been supportive of the Obama administration’s decision move towards normalization of relations with Cuba. He also has gone further than most in arguing for decriminalization of pot and has supported exhausting diplomatic options for dealing with Iran and its nuclear program.
Paul's initial comments on vaccinations led Carson, a favorite of the tea party, to express disbelief. | Getty
His initial comments on vaccinations led Carson, a favorite of the tea party, to express disbelief on Fox News Radio “I think he was misunderstood,” Carson said of Paul. “… He wouldn’t, I can’t imagine, advocate that people who are living amongst others in our society would simply allow disease to spread because they have a philosophical disagreement.”
But Carson’s own earlier statement that “we should not allow [disease] to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them,” has been the strongest repudiation yet of the idea that people should be able to opt out of government-mandated vaccinations. Even Obama declined to outright say vaccines should be mandatory.
For the most part on Tuesday, others in the GOP rushed to issue statements that praised vaccines and strongly urged parents not to opt against them.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he would not send his children to a school that did not require vaccination and condemned anti-vaccination “fear-mongering.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill that “absolutely, all children in America should be vaccinated”
In a statement, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry touted his record raising the rate of vaccination in the state. (In 2011, as he ran for the Republican presidential nomination, Perry disavowed a state program he oversaw that angered conservatives by requiring children to receive HPV vaccination. A Perry spokesman did not respond to questions about the circumstances in which vaccination ought to be mandatory.)
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, endorsed the right of states to empower schools to keep out children who have not been vaccinated but said the federal government should not mandate vaccination. She also added that not all vaccinations should be required. “There’s a big difference between an immunization for measles and HPV,” she noted.
In a statement, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence encouraged families to vaccinate their children and cited state law that requires vaccination. Representatives for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Even if he took the all Evangelical vote, they only make up 36% of the Republican base. And year after year the polls show that the center is turned off by those who pander to the Christian Right.
