Chris Christie fires major shot in vaccine war

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has unleashed a political firestorm by endorsing the right of parents to opt out of giving their children all of the vaccinations the medical community recommends for them.

The comment, at the height of a measles outbreak that is causing concern across the U.S., came while Christie, who also is considered a potential GOP candidate for president in 2016, spoke in the United Kingdom Monday.

Christie said, while he and his wife vaccinated their children, "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. That's the balance that the government has to decide."

Christie further elaborated that parents should make judgments based on the relative danger of the specific vaccines and the diseases they are designed to prevent.

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"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," he said.

Christie was heavily and immediately criticized for the comments.

Paul Waldman said in the Washington Post that the governor was "spectacularly wrong."

And Jeffrey Kluger of Time sneered that because Christie has never been a doctor, he should not give "terrible" medical advice.

Before the day was over, Christie had walked back his statements through a spokesman, who told the media the "governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated."

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While Christie is not a physician, there are other politicians who have practiced medicine and agree with his initial assessment.

Appearing on "The Laura Ingraham Show" on Monday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a former ophthalmologist who received his medical degree from Duke University, maintained that most vaccines "ought to be voluntary," adding that he had "delayed" his children's vaccines so they could be "staggered over time."

The senator's father, retired Rep. Ron Paul, also a doctor, has made similar comments in the past.

Bloomberg Politics writer Dave Weigel observed the senior Dr. Paul has made statements that "echoed some of what the harshest vaccine critics said."

The senior Paul, while acknowledging the benefits of vaccines, has said that the country has gone "overboard" in giving out vaccines, and he believes too many can overwhelm a patient's immune system.

Other medical professionals say parents should be cautious about vaccines. Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons told WND in an exclusive interview that she doesn't disagree with anything Gov. Christie said in his initial statement.

"Vaccines are a medical procedure, and we don't know fully what the risks are because testing is limited," she said. "There are not enough studies that follow those who receive vaccines over a long enough time period, and there are suspicions that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is not being altogether honest."

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Orient is author of a special report for WND readers an how to avoid Ebola.

As with Ebola, Orient observes that measles "almost always comes from abroad."

She told WND, “Measles can come from travelers and tourists, but we are also dealing with a huge surge of Central American children who crossed our borders last summer. If the aliens are undocumented, that also means their vaccine records are undocumented, and that alone increases the odds that the disease has been brought into the country."

Dr. Lee Hieb, author of "Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare," argues that Christie, if anything, should have gone further.

In an interview with WND, Hieb described what she believes Christie should have said: "This is a parental choice. Like any other medical procedure, patients should be given the choice, and it is blatantly unethical to force a procedure on unwilling patients. Vaccinations are a medical procedure, and just like any other medical procedure, they can have complications."

In Hieb's opinion, some vaccines can cause serious problems because they contain toxins, and a number of vaccines are used to protect against several diseases at once with one product. She believes the debate over vaccines ultimately concerns liberty and the freedom of parents to choose what's best for their child.

She bemoaned the undercurrent of state control inherent in the debate over vaccines.

"In medical school," Hieb recalled, "we were told to always listen to the mother, because she knows her child best. Now we are told, 'Don't listen to the mother, she's crazy.'"

Dr. Michael Burgess, Republican congressman for the 26th District of Texas, an obstetrician and the author of "Doctor in the House," said he would encourage people "to avail themselves of vaccination."

"From a broader perspective, we are extremely fortunate," he said. "Diseases that were once the scourge of childhood are now almost purely of historical interest. We don't want to go backward to a time when these sorts of diseases were common."

He said parents should know the decision not to vaccinate carries consequences.

"In some areas, children may not be able to go to school," he cautioned." If your child is not vaccinated against measles, you need to think carefully about taking the child to a public pool if your state is in the midst of an outbreak. Most importantly, every parent needs to intimately know the signs and symptoms of these diseases."

In a recent interview with NBC News, President Obama appeared to agree with Burgess. The president declared, "There is every reason to get vaccinated – there aren't reasons to not."

Obama's unambiguous statement in favor of vaccination is in contrast to Christie's comments describing a need to balance individual choice and social responsibility.

However, Obama's opinion on vaccinations has shifted.

In her story on the NBC interview, Abby Phillip of the Washington Post blamed the "growing public health crisis" on "an epidemic of vaccination skepticism – largely based on unfounded and discredited anti-vaccine beliefs."

But in April 2008, Obama made a statement arguably more "anti-vaccine" than Christie's.

At a rally in Pennsylvania, he said, "We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Nobody knows exactly why. There are some people who are suspicious that it's connected to vaccines. ... [T]he science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."

While Christie simply suggested that parents should carefully consider which vaccines to accept, Obama, though acknowledging the benefits, implied only a few years ago that vaccines may have harmful side effects.

Hieb indicated she agrees with Obama's 2008 statement.

"To suggest that all vaccines are all safe all the time is ridiculous," she said. "There are a lot of questions that should be asked."