This guy has just demonstrated with absolute certainty why he should never be President.
CAMBRIDGE, England _ New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Monday said the government needs to strike a "balance" between public health and parental choice in making decisions about vaccinating kids, even as an outbreak of measles is spreading among unvaccinated people in the United States.
"We vaccinate ours [kids], and so, you know that's the best expression I can give you of my opinion," Christie said when asked if he would urge Americans to vaccinate their children. "You know it's much more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. And that's what we do. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that's the balance that the government has to decide."
Coming from a lay citizen this would just be ignorant. Coming from a public official, in the middle of a potential measles outbreak, this is nothing short of appalling. Christie has just given broad license and cover for anti-vaccine nuts to sentence other children and adults--even those vaccinated but still susceptible to the disease--to a potentially fatal illness, because he thinks they deserve to be accommodated for their misguided "choices."
Pressed about whether he believes vaccines are dangerous, Christie responded: "I didn't say that - I said different disease types can be more lethal so that the concern would be measuring whatever the perceived danger is by a vaccine and we've had plenty of that over a period of time versus what the risk to public health is. And that's exactly what I mean by what I said."
It is the role of public officials--at least responsible ones--to support, recommend, and implement public safety measures based on sound science without regard to what a dangerous fringe element may conclude after reading something off the internet. That is what they are hired and paid for--not to abdicate their responsibility to protect the public in the name of "balancing" the lethal consequences of others' ignorance.
More Christie running off at the mouth:
Mr. Christie said that “not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others.”
Dr. Stephen Cochi of CDC’s Global Immunization Division has
characterized measles as "probably the most contagious infectious disease known to mankind." The CDC has
issued a warning reflecting the recent outbreak of measles in the United States, attributable to unvaccinated individuals spreading the disease to others as well as those who have been vaccinated, yet still
remain susceptible:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Tom Frieden on Sunday warned that the U.S. could see a "large outbreak" of measles.
"We are very concerned by the growing number of people who are susceptible to measles, and the possibility that we could have a large outbreak in this country as a result," Frieden said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
NPR reports that approximately 145,000 people worldwide last year died from measles:
Measles causes an intense fever, coughing, watery eyes and a signature full-body rash. The disease is rarely fatal in developed nations with modern health care systems but can cause brain damage and permanent hearing loss.
Once the virus starts spreading among kids who haven't been immunized, it's very difficult to stop.
Christie's remarks were apparently made in response to President Obama, who advised parents on Sunday in no uncertain terms to
get their kids vaccinated:
On Sunday, Obama told NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, “You should get your kids vaccinated.”
“I understand that there are families that, in some cases, are concerned about the effect of vaccinations,” Obama said. “The science is, you know, pretty indisputable. We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not.”
Validating a "debate" about the wisdom of child vaccinations is where Republican "small government" and "anti-science" ideology runs off the rails and crashes. Taking these kinds of positions should not only disqualify Christie's Presidential aspirations, it should disqualify him from holding any public office at all.