Free Republic

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...

Dr. Ben Carson, a likely 2016 GOP presidential contenders, believes there should be no “philosophical” or “religious” exemptions for vaccinations. “Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society,” Carson told The Hill.

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...

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...

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...

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...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you know, as sure as I called it, I'm telling you, remember the story we had yesterday on the Wi-Fi? A supposed doctor -- he's a doctor of environmental science -- has released his results from surveys or research or whatever that 5% of the population is susceptible to Wi-Fi sickness. And if you were here yesterday I spent a little bit of time on this 'cause I saw it was a lead item on Drudge, and I said, "I know what that means. Here we go." A totally manufactured new illness to create panic and...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is standing by his statement that most vaccinations should be "voluntary," telling CNBC that a parent's choice not to vaccinate a child is "an issue of freedom." In an interview with the network Monday, Paul said that vaccines are "a good thing" but that parents "should have some input" into whether or not their children must get them. And he gave credence to the idea - disputed by the majority of the scientific community - that vaccination can lead to mental disabilities. "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound...

CDC’s immunization safety director says it’s a “possibility” that vaccines rarely trigger autism but “it’s hard to predict who those children might be.” (They’re not even trying.) [This article was first published on Sept. 2, 2014]A CDC senior epidemiologist stepped forward last week to say that he and his CDC colleagues omitted data that linked MMR vaccine to autism in a 2004 study. The scientist, William Thompson, said “I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information.”Dr. Frank DeStefano, CDC Director of Immunization Safety A coauthor of the questioned study is Dr. Frank DeStefano, Director of the CDC...

No, apparently this is not a spoof, the scion of the man who was responsible for the Cuban blockade is full of awe for the Cuban dictatorship. Sure, it’s a dictatorship, but other than that, it’s just ducky, apparently. Writing in the South American news agency MercoPress, Robert F. Kennedy avers, after admitting the dictatorship and lack of a free press: Despite its poverty, Cuba has managed some impressive accomplishments. Cuba’s government boasts the highest literacy rates for its population of any nation in the hemisphere. Cuba claims its citizens enjoy universal access to health care and more doctors per...

In early December, President Barack Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of a misguided policy which my uncle, John F. Kennedy, and my father, Robert F. Kennedy, had been responsible for enforcing after the U.S. embargo against the country was first implemented in October 1960 by the Eisenhower administration. The move has raised hopes in many quarters – not only in the United States but around the world – that the embargo itself is now destined to disappear. This does not detract from the fact that Cuba is still a dictatorship. The...

Representatives of the international coalition No Patents on Seeds! from France, Germany and Spain have filed an opposition against a European patent held by Monsanto on conventionally bred tomatoes (EP1812575). The patent claims tomatoes with a natural resistance to a fungal disease called botrytis. The original tomatoes used for this patent came from the international gene bank in Gatersleben, Germany. It was already known that these plants had the desired resistance and they were simply crossed with other tomato plants. Monsanto then produced a cleverly worded patent in order to create the impression that genetic engineering had been used to...