Political shots dismay doctors fighting measles
Republican presidential candidates suggest some vaccinations should be voluntary, injecting unwelcome doubt in health campaign
Medical experts reacted with alarm as two top Republican contenders for the US presidential nomination appeared to question whether child vaccinations should be mandatory - injecting politics into an emotional issue that has taken on new resonance with a recent outbreak of measles in the United States.
First, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, while visiting a vaccine laboratory during an overseas trip to Britain, called for "some measure of choice" on whether shots guarding against measles and other diseases should be required for children.
Then, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ophthalmologist who is also readying a 2016 campaign, said in two US television interviews he believes most vaccines should be voluntary, citing "many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines."
"The state doesn't own your children," Paul said on CNBC, praising vaccines for their benefits but insisting that the government should not mandate their use in most cases. "Parents own the children. And it is an issue of freedom and public health."
The vigorous outcry in response to the remarks underscored the sensitivity surrounding the vaccination debate, particularly given a widening multistate measles outbreak linked to a California theme park. Both Christie and Paul are leading GOP candidates who are likely to exercise significant influence over the direction of the 2016 primary race.
The comments also illustrated persistent strains of scepticism within both parties over vaccination requirements, fuelled in part by discredited claims of a connection between childhood shots and autism. Scientists have blamed a small but influential anti-vaccine movement for helping spark a new epidemic of measles, which was once virtually eliminated.
"When you see educated people or elected officials giving credence to things that have been completely debunked, an idea that's been shown to be responsible for multiple measles and pertussis outbreaks in recent years, it's very concerning," said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh. He called the comments from Paul particularly troubling because he is a doctor.
Christie's aides were quick to try and clarify his remarks, insisting in a statement that the Republican governor believes the use of vaccines is "an important public health protection".
After visiting a MedImmune vaccine laboratory in Cambridge, Christie was asked to weigh in on the debate in the United States over the measles outbreak. President Barack Obama told NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie on Sunday, "You should get your kids vaccinated."
"The science is, you know, pretty indisputable," Obama said. "We've looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not."
Christie, however, said on Monday "there has to be a balance, and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is, and all the rest. Not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others."
"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," he said.
As for Paul, he told talk show host Laura Ingraham he had chosen to hold off on vaccinating his own kids for some diseases.
"I didn't like them getting 10 vaccines at once, so I actually delayed my kids' vaccines and had them staggered over time."
Both men's remarks drew immediate rebuke from public-health experts.
Seth Mnookin, a professor at MIT who wrote a book on the vaccination debate called , called the comments "incredibly, incredibly irresponsible".
Such remarks, "basically fail at the first duty of a politician, which is to calm his constituents in moments of irrational crisis".
Criticism came too from some political strategists, who wondered if Christie might have been attempting to appeal to Republicans suspicious of government mandates.
"There's only one of two options," said Rick Wilson, a Republican from Florida. "Either he's so tone deaf that he doesn't understand why saying this is bad for him, or this is a considered political strategy. And that would be even more troubling."
Christie aides said he was not questioning science, and they acknowledged that his initial comments could be misconstrued.
California daycare centre closed after measles case
A daycare centre at a Southern California high school has been closed and more than a dozen infants placed in three-week quarantine after a baby was diagnosed with measles, a school district official said.
The move on Monday came as public health officials reported that more than 100 people across the United States had measles, many of them traced to an outbreak that began at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim in December.
The child, who is under a year old and therefore unvaccinated, was enrolled in the daycare centre at Santa Monica High School, said Gail Pinsker, spokeswoman for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
A freshman baseball coach at Santa Monica High School was diagnosed with measles last month, but Pinsker said the two cases were not connected and that the coach had recovered from his illness.
Pinsker said that the infant room at the daycare centre had been closed indefinitely following the diagnosis and that 14 other babies enrolled there had been placed under 21-day quarantine on the orders of Los Angeles County health officials.
The daycare centre's toddler room would be closed until tomorrow, she said, and all children would be required to show proof of immunisation before they would be allowed to return.
