GOP senator defends mandatory vaccinations after Paul says they're inconsistent with liberty

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

GOP senator defends mandatory vaccinations after Paul says they're inconsistent with liberty

By Caroline Kelly, CNN
Updated 0000 GMT (0800 HKT) March 7, 2019

(CNN) — A Republican senator forcefully defended mandatory vaccinations Tuesday after his Republican colleague, Sen. Rand Paul, blasted national vaccination requirements as a danger to liberty.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, said vaccines are a key public health safeguard after Paul, of Kentucky, criticized mandatory vaccinations, despite saying that he and his children had been vaccinated. The comments from the senators, both of whom are doctors, come after more than 200 measles cases have been reported across 11 states and prompted Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency in January.

"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," said Paul, an ophthalmologist, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing advocating the use of vaccines.

"I don't think you have to have one or the other, though," he added. "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, I've vaccinated my kids. For myself and my children I believe that the benefits of vaccines greatly outweigh the risks, but I still do not favor giving up on liberty for a false sense of security."

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/06/politics/rand-paul-bill-cassidy-vaccines/index.html

[MyOwnPeace]

1. Hmmmmm......

Wonder how he feels about seat belts?

[Renew Deal]

2. Does Paul support forcing people to drive without being drunk?

Does Paul support forcing people to not kill other people?

[no_hypocrisy]

3. You don't have the "liberty" to infect

and harm the general population with diseases that otherwise could be contained. You subject *other* unvaccinated individuals to potential misery and/or death along with medical bills. You may think you're assuming the risk, but that doesn't apply to others.

The trade-off is that we don't have quarantine centers anymore that resemble prison wards. The vaccines obviate that public health policy.

[bronxiteforever]

4. So vaccines are a "false sense of security".

So says Rand Paul (Republican Chair of Polio Caucus)