(CNN) — Republican Ben Carson said on Tuesday vaccinations should be mandatory, with no religious or philosophical exemptions, and schools should check to make sure children have received them.
"We already have policies in place at schools that require immunization records and things of that nature," the conservative neurosurgeon, who is weighing a 2016 run for president, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."
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"A lot of people are put off when they hear the word 'government force,' and perhaps there's a better way to put these things," Carson said. "But the fact of the matter is, studies have shown us over the course of time that the benefit-to-risk ratio for vaccination is way in the favor of doing it as opposed to not doing it."
