Chris Christie and Rand Paul’s pandering to antivaccinationists:

[SidDithers]

Is the Republican Party becoming the antivaccine party?

“I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice as well. So that’s a balance the government has to decide.”

— NJ Governor Chris Christie, February 2, 2015

“The state doesn’t own the children. Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom.”

— Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), February 2, 2015

Longtime readers know that I lived in central New Jersey for eight and a half years before taking an opportunity to return to my hometown just under seven years ago. Having spent the better part of a decade there, I think I understand New Jersey, at last the northern and central parts of the state. It’s a strange state with a lot of corruption and mismanagement. (For instance, I was there when Jim McGreevey was governor, and I even met him before he became governor, back when he was still mayor of the Woodbridge Township and then later when he was governor.) Indeed, while I lived there I had a hard time deciding if Chicago politics was more corrupt than New Jersey politics or vice-versa. I ended up deciding that it was pretty much a wash.

Be that as it may, I can sort of understand why New Jersey elected Governor Chris Christie. He’s big—literally. He’s boisterous. He’s blunt and plain-talking (for a politician), and he gives the impression of not taking any guff from anyone while being relatively moderate politically. All of these are very much part of how Jersey natives appeared to view themselves. (Personally, I don’t like him much because I view him as a loudmouthed bully, but I don’t live in New Jersey anymore.) As of yesterday Gov. Christie’s also a poster child for the political peril of pandering to the antivaccine movement. In fact, I view him as Exhibit A supporting a growing belief that I’ve been developing that the Republican Party has become the antivaccine party. Wait, maybe that’s a little too strong, but certainly it has become the party supporting antivaccine viewpoints more strongly than the Democrats.

Behold how this controversy began. There Christie was, in England on a trade visit, doing the things politicians do to try to bolster their foreign policy credentials in preparation for running for President, and he had to go and put his foot in it with respect to vaccines during a visit to a medical research facility. First, as background, you should know that the night before, Sunday night, President Obama had issued an unequivocal call to parents to have their children vaccinated:

“I understand that there are families that in some cases are concerned about the effect of vaccinations. The science is, you know, pretty indisputable. We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not,” the president explained.

And:

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

So far, so good. You can’t expect a much more unequivocal statement of support for vaccination than that from a politician.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/02/03/is-republican-party-becoming-antivaccine-party/


Orac's been all over the antivaxxers lately. This is his latest.



Sid

[maryellen99]

1. They are now anti vaccine because Obama said to get your kids vaccinated simple as that nt

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

2. Translation: We are such disgusting, vile excuses for human beings we are willing

to pander to the worst in people, to maybe get a vote or two here and there.