Carly Fiorina: "Always the parent's choice" to vaccinate kids

CBS News ^ | 8/14/2015 | Reena Flores

[Bluewater2015]

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Thursday that parents should not be forced to vaccinate their children against diseases like measles or mumps. However, she said she also believes schools should be free to make vaccinations for communicable diseases a requirement for attendance, saying families have to "make that trade-off" for themselves.

Fiorina told reporters after the event that "when you have highly communicable diseases where you have a vaccine that's proven, like measles or mumps, then I think a parent can make that choice."

California, where Fiorina ran for a Senate seat against Democrat Barbara Boxer in 2010, recently passed a law requiring nearly all schoolchildren to be vaccinated. Several calls to tighten the state's vaccine laws erupted after a measles outbreak last December was found to have originated in Disneyland.

Fiorina expressed her disapproval of the mandate, saying that "California is wrong on most everything, honestly."

[Bluewater2015]

Whether or not Fiorina's arguments have merit (I personally do not think they do), she's appealing to a niche that's not representative of the American electorate. I guess she's not a serious candidate.

[4rcane]

she’s engaging in politician double speak

[Responsibility2nd]

I guess she’s not a serious candidate.

____________________________________________

Are you kidding. Just never get between an argument between a vaxer and an anti-vaxer.

Whooo!

But what choice does an anti-vaxer really have when the school says; “Nope. Your kid aint coming in here?”

[PATRIOT1876]

* California is wrong on most everything *

That should be on their license plate!

[Vendome]

I agree

You don’t have to vaccinate but, no public school for you.

[Jan_Sobieski]

I guess she's not a serious candidate.

I hope you are being sarcastic. Believing in the rights of parents to make an educated choice for their children rather than being coerced by the gods of medicine is hardly controversial. In fact, it is American.

[Arm_Bears]

Home schooling comes to mind.

[Parmy]

I grew up during the Polio scare. And, it was a real threat because Polio was a devastating affliction. When the vaccine came out all of us youngsters were made to receive the vaccinations. Also, during the school year we also had small pox vaccinations.

I am still alive because I looked in the mirror and checked. I believe the wrinkled puss staring back at me is due in part to those vaccinations. In those days many of the diseases we don't have now, were prevalent then.

[Bluewater2015]

she’s engaging in politician double speak

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Exactly. I’ve got more respect for the pol who comes down squarely on the wrong side than no side at all (or both sides at once).

[RIghtwardHo]

Well, it’s the Parent’s choice and that’s fine, but you should not be permitted to co-mingle your kids with others. It spreads disease. Period.

[Buckeye McFrog]

School attendance is mandatory in all 50 states.

Vaccination should be voluntary.

But schools can require it.

And you face prison for not sending your kid to school.

What, has she been taking rhetoric classes from Bill Clinton?

[Jan_Sobieski]

So would you restrict a child to their home?

[Bluewater2015]

Well, it’s the Parent’s choice and that’s fine, but you should not be permitted to co-mingle your kids with others. It spreads disease. Period.

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I’d agree, except the last big measles outbreak (in California) was at Disneyland. And though Patient Zero was probably a foreign tourist, the lack of herd immunity among California children (lax vax laws were responsible for that—at least in part) allowed the disease to spread.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Thank God for homeschooling. Otherwise it would get really ugly fast.

[Vaquero]

I personally got seriously ill from a flu shot that still affects me 16 years later. Although my kids recieved shots for the standard childhood diseases we won’t give them for something that most people survive like flu etc.

I think if there is a potential for dangerous epidemic then vaccinations may be necessary for national health (ie a new smallpox or similarly dangerous epidemic).

[samtheman]

I agree

You don’t have to vaccinate but, no public school for you.

I agree, too.

You don't ever have to bathe your kid, either, and let him or her run around infested with fleas.

But not in public school.

Not that I'm in love with public schools. This is just obvious common sense.

Keep your pus-oozing scabs at home, thank you.

[Tired of Taxes]

She’s right on both points:

(1) Parents have the (natural) right to make vaccination decisions for their children.

(2) Schools have a right to set vaccination policy.

I hope that she also agrees that (3) parents should make the decisions on education for their children.

[taxcontrol]

I am alive because I did NOT get the small pox vaccine until I was 18 and joined the Army. Due to a skin condition, it would have likely killed me when I was a child. At least that is why my mom (RN) and my doctor did not give me the vaccine.

[impimp]

I find that your post is ignorant and poorly thought through. Did you ever hear of private school and homeschool.

[jsanders2001]

> I grew up during the Polio scare. And, it was a real threat because Polio was a devastating affliction. When the vaccine came out all of us youngsters were made to receive the vaccinations. Also, during the school year we also had small pox vaccinations.

That was in the days when the government could be trusted to some extent. Technology has come so far they can now conceal things in your vaccines on a microscopic scale. Back in the 90's a GPS unit could be implanted in you that was the size of a grain of rice. No telling how small they have been able to make them at this point. Now they'll create an epidemic, force everyone to get the vaccination with a hidden trojan in it. Its a fine line.