Free Republic

Having trotted out just about every conspiracy theory in the book against the tightening of vaccination laws in California, the opponents of Senate Bill 277 have come up with a new and truly cynical angle – race.

With California gripped by a measles outbreak, Dr. Charles Goodman posted a clear notice in his waiting room and on Facebook: His practice will no longer see children whose parents won't get them vaccinated. It's a sentiment echoed by a small number of doctors who in recent years have "fired" patients who continue to believe debunked research linking vaccines to autism. They hope the strategy will lead parents to change their minds; if that fails, they hope it will at least reduce the risk to other children in the office.

The Wall Street Journal’s influential editorial board rapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the knuckles for “meandering” on vaccines. “The real public health problem isn’t a lack of parental choice but a lack of common sense about vaccines,” the Journal said in a late-Monday editorial. It added that lawmakers should do more to promote vaccine use.

Some voters might think that the vaccine skepticism movement—whose proponents are pejoratively called anti-vaxxers—lost its political oomph this winter. After New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told reporters that vaccination was a choice for parents to make, the backlash found every other likely Republican candidate affirming that he supported vaccinations. That was a blow to activists who have become convinced, by junk science, that the scheduled shots can cause autism. Last week, when New Hampshire anti-vaccine activist Laura Condon asked Christie if he could support expanded exemptions, he shut her down.“You can't count on me,” Christie said.Condon wasn’t done. She showed up...

The White House press corps repeatedly tried to get White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest to endorse a vaccination mandate Tuesday, but Earnest rejected such invitations every time. We counted nine different denials.1. Because of that risk to the vulnerable population, does he believe that it's time to revisit state laws that allow some parents to opt out? MR. EARNEST: Well, I know that there has been substantial litigation around this, too. I think in the mind of the President -- I did have the opportunity to visit with him shortly before the briefing on this very issue -- the...

A Nation of Islam leader believes that the vaccine could harm black boys and compares it to the Tuskegee syphilis study. But a coalition of other black organizations says the vaccines are needed and the fears are unfounded.Nation of Islam Western Regional Minister Tony Muhammad warns members of the California Legislative Black Caucus of a political backlash from their community if they support a bill that would mandate childhood vaccinations, according to the Los Angeles Times. Voting in favor of the bill, which may come up in the Assembly on Thursday, would be “a traitorous act,” Muhammad said, according to...

Retired neurosurgeon and presidential hopeful Ben Carson attempted Sunday to diffuse the vaccination debate that has gripped the political scene, saying there’s no reason to turn vaccines for measles and other diseases into a partisan issue. Mr. Carson, a star in conservative circles, said scientists have debunked skeptics who warn of debilitating side effects from vaccines, and parents who forgo vaccinations are eroding the herd immunity that has lulled them into complacency. “We’ve had such an effective vaccination program that you’re not seeing the diseases,” Mr. Carson told “Fox News Sunday.” A measles outbreak traced to Disneyland in California has...

Dr. Ben Carson, former Director Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and author of “You Have a Brain” argued that the US should be “doubly vigilant” about vaccinating children due to the dangers of an open border on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Lead” on CNN. Carson was asked about a statement he gave where he said “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,” he explained “We already have policies in place at schools that require immunization records and things of...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday that the vaccination issue "is largely silliness stirred up by the media. Nobody reasonably thinks Chris Christie is opposed to vaccinating kids other than a bunch of reporters who want to write headlines." CBS News' John Nolen reports that Cruz went on to say, "This question has historically been decided at the state level. And most states choose to do what the state of Texas does which is to mandate vaccines for children to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases." A statement he released noted that most states make exceptions for good-faith religious...

The surgeon general of the United States recently showed up on Sesame Street to try to convince kids to get vaccinated, and his spiel was pitched “at the appropriate intellectual level,” according to one prominent medical doctor. “It just puts the argument down on a juvenile plane and insults people’s intelligence,” said Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Because these little kids are not the people you need to be talking to. The people you need to be talking to are the parents who are making the decisions.” In the video released late...

A new study this week found no link between vaccines and autism. It instantly made headlines on TV news and popular media everywhere. Many billed it as the final word, “once again,” disproving the notion that vaccines could have anything to do with autism. What you didn’t learn on the news was that the study was from a consulting firm that lists major vaccine makers among its clients: The Lewin Group. That potential conflict of interest was not disclosed in the paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine; the study authors simply declare “The Lewin Group operates with...

I Will Accept Your Surrender White-flagBy Kent Heckenlively I've made this offer several times in the past. I'm making it again. I am willing to accept the surrender of those who have perverted science, harmed a generation of children, and even as of this late date are willing to harm more children so as to not to upset the balance of their lives. It must be truly troubling for those who continue to fuel the epidemic of autism and other chronic diseases that even though you still maintain the trust of those in the media, the scientific community, and most...

The measles outbreak that began in Disneyland last December has infected more than 100 people in 14 states, most recently victimizing five infants at a Chicago area daycare. Last year, there were 644 cases of measles reported, by far the largest number in a decade and a half. The resurgence of a contagious and potentially deadly disease has reignited the nationwide debate over mandatory childhood vaccinations. Worldwide, there are still hundreds of thousands of measles-related deaths each year. A decade before children began receiving the measles vaccine (given as the MMR—measles, mumps, rubella—vaccine series since 1971) in the United States,...

Karen Hains of Bettendorf has chosen delayed vaccinations for her children. Hains’ daughter received her 2-month immunizations on schedule. Right afterward, she said, the baby “had bloody, mucusy stools for a week and could hardly nurse,” Hains said. The little girl also ran a fever of 102 degrees. “After the 4-months vaccinations, she had (a reaction) again, but a little less severe,” Hains said. “That was enough for me to realize that was definitely because of the shots. It wasn’t until my second child that I decided to do something different.” With her second child, she waited until after 6...

I am calling on the federal government to mandate vaccinations for all children, and to eliminate all of the silly loopholes that are creating chaos in so many communities throughout America. Vaccinations are not only about the individual, but they are also meant to protect the lives of others. As we have seen over the past several weeks, measles, and other communicable diseases that were all but eradicated decades ago, are popping up across the country, and putting people’s lives in danger. Basic childhood vaccines should be the legal requirement of every citizen in this country, except in the case...

In recent days a controversy has arisen over whether parents should be required to vaccinate their children. Some politicians with presidential aspirations were criticized for defending the rights of parents to make that decision. As an internal medicine doctor, I believe strongly in the efficacy of vaccines. I also believe strongly that our vaccines (and all of our medical advances) should be safe and derived in a morally principled fashion.There is an ethical concern about the measles vaccine issue that I do not believe the American public is aware: a component of the current MMR vaccine is derived from an...

The increase in numbers of American children diagnosed with autism is frightening. Autism cases have skyrocketed between 20 and 30 fold since the early 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2014, the CDC released a report stating that one child in 68 had autism, a 30 percent increase from only two years earlier. For boys, the risk was even worse — one in 42. The condition, which causes difficulty communicating and limited social skills, was so rare in past generations that the term autism wasn't even used in the modern sense until 1938. Autism wasn't classified as...

There has been much debate recently over vaccination mandates, particularly in response to the measles outbreak currently taking place throughout the country. At this juncture, there have been 102 confirmed measles cases in the U.S. during 2015, with 59 of them linked to a December 2014 visit to the Disneyland theme park in Southern California. (It is important to note that 11 of the cases associated with Disneyland were detected last year and, consequently, fall within the 2014 measles count.) This large outbreak has spread to at least a half-dozen other states, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Doctors are warning parents against reviving “measles parties” intended to expose children to the disease at a gathering with at least one infected person. The parties ostensibly help children build immunity against the disease and are used instead of vaccinating or leaving exposure up to chance. Such practices have been discouraged despite similar events such as “pox parties” which expose children to chickenpox for the purpose of building immunity. “CDPH strongly recommends against the intentional exposure of children to measles as it unnecessarily places the exposed children at potentially grave risk and could contribute to further spread of the outbreak,”...

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama gave cautious support for the anti-vaxxer cause a few years ago. While running for the presidency in 2008, Obama called the alleged link between autism and vaccination scientifically “inconclusive.” In the same year, Mrs. Clinton went further, expressing her support for an official study to track down “possible environmental causes” of autism “like vaccines.” No scandal — though the eventual winner of the race did win a few “Pinnochios” for his statement. (Studies at that time had already determined no such link, hence the Washington Post’s awarding of demerits to both Obama and his Republican...