Ben Carson: Vaccines are good medicine, not political issue

The Washington Times ^ | February 8, 2015 | Tom Howell, Jr.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

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 resulted in at least 150 cases, and the political wildfire around whether parents must vaccinate their children is spreading just as quickly. Some Republican presidential hopefuls struggled with the issue last week, prompting other contenders to quickly tout the merits of vaccines.

Meanwhile, government disease specialists said the benefits of vaccination far outweigh side effects that typically amount to a sore arm or slight fever.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said measles is a disease “that’s entirely preventable.”

He accused the anti-vaccine crowd of putting the youngest Americans at risk, as toddlers cannot get the shot until they reach their first birthday.

“What we’re talking about are outbreaks among vulnerable people,” said Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top disease fighter.

The situation has renewed debate about whether governments and school districts have done enough to stamp out diseases. On Friday the University of California system announced that, starting in 2017, incoming students must be vaccinated against measles and other diseases.

The intersection between medical science and government mandates tripped up prominent politicians last week.

[jttpwalsh]

He hasn’t had a flu shot for many years

---

Last time I got a flu shot was over 20 years ago. I became ill, the next day, and then caught the flu, a month later. Got the flu once, since then, about nine years ago - I prefer to take my chances.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Will ANYONE really believe a man whom the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER has listed as AN EXTREMIST?
Carson has escaped the Democratic Plantation!

[marron]

My dad had polio and spent a year or so in a sanitarium. He remembers that some of his room-mates didn’t make it. It was an experience that he didn’t talk about until old age, but that definitely marked him.

Polio vaccine was definitely a Godsend.

[momincombatboots]

Ditto here. I have been exposed to confirmed cases at least a hundred times these last two years. Maybe I had a good case of that pandemic 68 flu, the year I was born. Who knows.. I do know, no one starts getting the flu until people get vaccinated. Every year, as predictable as a democrat raising taxes.. first the vax, then next thing you know we are all going to die of the flu. Full disclosure, I wash with soap and water after any exposure.

[cripplecreek]

Obviously there are the true killers that all should be vaccinated against like polio if there’s any sign of it in the population. (My great grandmother’s sister died of polio in the early 1900s) We don’t get the smallpox vaccine anymore. I think I was about the last generation to get the vaccine and have the scar to prove it.

When people tell me that 150,000 people died of measles last year I have some questions. Right off the top I have to assume that’s global number out of some 7 billion people. I wonder about sanitation and living conditions or whether they have access to decent medical care all the time. I also need to know if the people who die did so because of the measles or due to secondary infections and complications.

[BenLurkin]

Vaccines need not be a political issue — if parents are left alone in making the decision for their children.

[EternalVigilance]

That was my first thought as well.

I also hate this “herd immunity” crap.

We’re not cattle.

At least not all of us.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Does anyone remember polio and iron lungs....I do***

I remember those days! Often I wish some of the anti-vaxers could be put in a time machine and returned to the wonderful world of Polio, Diphtheria, whooping cough, cholera, yellow fever, SMALLPOX, tetanus, RABIES, MEASLES, more measles, and assorted other nasties! Why do they think the old timers had so many children! Most would never make it to adulthood and the old cemeteries prove this.

Even a farmer has enough sense to vaccinate his cattle against Blackleg, anthrax and edema and other nasties!

I still remember a kid my age who were so crippled from Polio they wore braces and walked with two canes. When our school had a fire drill two large boys were given the job of carrying him out of the building!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I believe the bottom, bottom, bottom line is the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.***

NO! The bottom line is do YOU want to put flowers on your child’s grave for the next forty years because YOU wanted to prove the state wrong about vaccinations!

[Ditter]

I remember polio. I went to school with several kids who had it. I was going to take swimming lessons but it must have started about then, so I never learned to swim. Along with no swimming we stopped going to the movies and my dad discovered drive in movies. I didn’t understand until years later what they were afraid of.

Then there is post polio, it never stops.

[Kit cat]

I am all in for vaccinations however the facts are NOT ONE child has died from the measles and many HAVE died from vaccinations for one reason or another!!!! Those are the FACTS!!!!! all you need is ONE death to get the wackadoodles on board against vaccinations!!!!!!!

[marron]

If you are my age, you remember polio. Our parents couldn’t wait to get us vaccinated. You didn’t have to make it obligatory. We wanted it.

This is the argument. It isn’t, are vaccines a good thing. Its whether or not they should be obligatory, as in, take your kids away from you and put you in jail obligatory. Thats a different subject.

There may be some diseases in which that is the case, you are prepared to use police power to enforce it. There may be other cases, other diseases, where it is not right to use the power of the state to enforce it.

But as I say, in the worst cases, with the worst diseases, it doesn’t take much incentive to get people to get the shot. They want it. Its the secondary diseases, where people start to consider the risks and occasionally refuse to be stampeded.

[Bogey78O]

You let a word offend you?

It’s a term for a grouping. It’s commonly used.

Herd immunity exists. It’s how we choked smallpox into extinction.

Conservatives are supposed to do the smart thing that has been proven by generations of success. Vaccinations work.

Let the idiot liberals kill off their children by refusing them.

[MrEdd]

Doesn’t a prospective political candidate making that statement in public completely invalidate it at the same time?

[Boogieman]

“This is the argument. It isn’t, are vaccines a good thing. Its whether or not they should be obligatory, as in, take your kids away from you and put you in jail obligatory.”

Who is making that argument though? I only ever hear about this from anti-vaxxers, I have yet to hear anyone seriously advocate that position.

[Cloverfarm]

I wonder if the folks who won’t vaccinate their kids have their pets vaccinated.

[marron]

This is where it all started. Christie said vaccines are good, but the opinion of the parents had to be respected as well.

quoting:

Christie said that he and his wife had vaccinated their children, describing that decision as “the best expression I can give you of my opinion.” He said they believe doing so is an “important part of making sure we protect their health and the public health.”
“But,” Christie 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.”

Because he said the parents should also have some choice, all hell broke loose and that is why its been kicked around on FR ever since. In my view, nothing he said was unreasonable, and I'm no fan of Christie. Vaccines, in general = good. But children belong to their parents, not to the state. So their opinion also matters. Especially, as I say, in the diseases of secondary or lesser public threat.

[Cloverfarm]

Polio and iron lungs ... and kids wearing leg braces ...

yup, I remember.

My husband’s grandmother survived polio as a child but then it returned as progressive weakness in old age. It was like her system was worn out from compensating all those years.

One of my great aunts died of diptheria.

I remember having the mumps as a toddler. It was one of the most painful things I ever experienced. Hubs was sick for a couple of weeks when he got chicken pox.

We would not wish those illnesses on anybody. And they are avoidable.

[Secret Agent Man]

if you can be forced to take a vaccine against your will, you don’t even have control over your on body. the state owns your body then. and your kids.

that’s enough for me. that’s my it’s over line.

[Lisbon1940]

You’ll know when you get it.