Libertarian Idiot: Senator Rand Paul defends parents who refuse to vaccinate their children while spewing anti-vaccine garbage during a Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Kentucky Senator Paul, a Republican, argued against mandatory vaccines for children while promoting the dangerous and discredited conspiracy theory that vaccines harm children.
The Washington Post reports:
Virtually all the speakers endorsed the safety and importance of vaccines. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) struck a defiant note. Even though he said he and his children had been vaccinated because the benefits greatly outweigh the risks, he asked whether it was appropriate for the government to require people to be vaccinated against certain diseases.
Speaking at the packed hearing held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building Tuesday morning Paul said:
It is wrong to say that there are no risks to vaccines. Even the government admits that children are sometimes injured by vaccines.
Paul continued:
As we contemplate forcing parents to choose this or that vaccine, I think it’s important to remember that force is not consistent with the American story, nor is force consistent with the liberty our forefathers sought when they came to America.
I don’t think you have to have one or the other, though. I’m not here to say don’t vaccinate your kids. If this hearing is for persuasion I’m all for the persuasion. I’ve vaccinated myself and I’ve vaccinated my kids. For myself and my children I believe that the benefits of vaccines greatly outweighing the risks, but I still don’t favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security.
Now proponents of mandatory government vaccination argue that parents who refuse to vaccinate their children risk spreading these diseases to immunocompromised community. There doesn’t seem to be enough evidence of this happening to be recorded as a statistic.
Sen. @RandPaul on vaccines: “I still do not favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security.”
Full video here: https://t.co/iM83n6S3nR pic.twitter.com/vieM5R6bms
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 5, 2019
NEW — Sen. Rand Paul used his perch on the Senate Health committee today to push the notion that it’s fine for parents not to vaccinate their kids and that vaccines cause harmhttps://t.co/DopLUiDR7I
— Sam Stein (@samstein) March 5, 2019
Commenting on Paul’s testimony, Sam Stein, writing for the Daily Beast, notes:
Virtually all medical literature shows that the benefits of vaccines dramatically outweigh the limited risks. And many of the more outlandish conspiracies (including supposed links of vaccines to autism) have been discredited. But, here too, Paul sounded a skeptical note, suggesting that the data simply wasn’t large enough to give parents a convincing case.
This is not the first time Paul has made dishonest and misleading claims about vaccines. In 2015, while making the same argument that mandated immunization is an example of government overreach, Paul cited alleged cases in which vaccines lead to “profound mental disorders.”
At the time Paul said:
I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.
As USA Today reported at the time, Paul’s claims concerning vaccines were “false and misleading.”
And despite Paul’s willful ignorance and willingness to promote dishonest and discredited conspiracy theories, the fact remains that vaccines are safe and effective.
Bottom line: Republican Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian idiot, defends parents who refuse to vaccinate their children while spewing anti-vaccine garbage during a Senate Health Committee hearing on Tuesday.
