White House Vaccine Policy Needs Some Work

Posted by | February 4, 2015 17:00 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Politics Tommy Christopher

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Political news took an 18th century turn this week when President Obama forced Republicans to oppose mandatory vaccinations by saying that everyone should vaccinate their kids. In short order, Chris Christie was calling for parental choice and balance in vaccine requirement, and Rand Paul was claiming that vaccines might cripple your brain, or not, but he’s getting his shots anyway, and John Boehner was declaring his own love of vaccines, but not a need for new laws to ensure everyone gets them. In a particularly Republican touch, even the ones who defended vaccines found a way to bash immigrants, instead.

Lost amid the gleeful and appropriate Republican-bashing and inaccurate 2008 Obama-bashing is the fact that while Democrats have happily claimed the high ground that Republicans have ceded them, they haven’t really earned it. Yes, they have cleared the low bar of not questioning the need for everyone to act responsibly to get their kids vaccinated, but they haven’t actually called for any legislative action to accomplish that.

It’s not like they haven’t been asked. Savannah Guthrie specifically asked the president, during her Super Bowl interview, if there “should be a requirement” for parents to get their kids vaccinated, and he didn’t actually answer that question.

Part of the problem is a general level of ignorance by the media on the subject of vaccines, as exemplified by Guthrie’s apparent unawareness that every state requires children to be vaccinated, or at the other end, by ABC News’ Jim Avila insisting that there are federal laws requiring childhood vaccine, which he did at a White House briefing last Friday. Listen to how White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest responds…READ MORE

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

4 responses to White House Vaccine Policy Needs Some Work

  1. William February 4th, 2015 at 17:21

    President Obama forced Republicans to oppose mandatory vaccinations by saying that everyone should vaccinate their kids

    It’s time the President started using the GOP mindset to his advantage.

  2. William February 4th, 2015 at 18:21

    President Obama forced Republicans to oppose mandatory vaccinations by saying that everyone should vaccinate their kids

    It’s time the President started using the GOP mindset to his advantage.

  3. illinoisboy1977 February 5th, 2015 at 11:35

    My libertarian side wars with my liberal side, on this one. I DO believe that a parent should have the last word, when it comes to a child’s preventative medical care. That being said, if you don’t want to vaccinate your kids, homeschool the disease-ridden little monsters, so they don’t infect mine.
    You don’t have to mandate vaccination. Just make it a requirement for admission to the public school system.

  4. illinoisboy1977 February 5th, 2015 at 12:35

    My libertarian side wars with my liberal side, on this one. I DO believe that a parent should have the last word, when it comes to a child’s preventative medical care. That being said, if you don’t want to vaccinate your kids, homeschool the disease-ridden little monsters, so they don’t infect mine.
    You don’t have to mandate vaccination. Just make it a requirement for admission to the public school system.

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