Do you feel like Chris Christie's words are being twisted about his opinion on vaccinations?

I hadn’t heard this so I googled it. Here’s a blog that had some interesting points:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/02/02/chris-christie-just-called-for-balance-in-vaccinations-uh-oh/

@jca That link is great. Especially, the box at the bottom where we get to see Christie elaborate on his answers. I had not seen or heard that before, and I feel like it only supports my opinion that the media is twisting his words.

I do think it’s important we have the norm be the government or AMA dictate a vaccine schedule, and exceptions be made with parents partnering with their pediatricians. I wouldn’t want some sort of free for all with parents making all the decisions without a recommended guideline. However, a girlfriend of mine who was having to go through testing for the possibility that her youngest daughter had epilepsy was never advised not to give a certain vaccine, I can’t remember which one now, but my mom told me to tell her at the time. My mom worked for vaccinations at FDA; she knew which vaccine was contraindicated. The doctors don’t read all too often. Seriously, I have two clear examples of my parents being prescribed meds that are life threatening in combination with other medications they were taking at the time. Her daughter wound up negative on all tests for epilepsy and eventually had all of her shots exceot chicken pox. This particular mom happens to be very skiddish about vaccinations and delayed some anyway, which my mom didn’t know, but did them all by school age, except chicken pox.

I have a feeling Christie was trying to avoid getting snagged in the HPV vaccine conversation, which was an issue last election. I think that’s why he was careful to say not all diseases are equal. I’m just guessing.

@JLeslie Are you aware that there is a huge controversy right now about the number of parents who opt out of vaccinations through mistaken beliefs and that this has brought back diseases previously eradicated such as the measles outbreak now in California? If too many people opt out, there is no herd protection. for all.

I doubt that many would argue there aren’t individual cases for medical reasons where the schedule can’t be altered but vaccinations should not be withheld at parental whim.

Very aware about the controversy. I’m concerned about the opt out also. Measles was considered eradicated in the US, not the world, it isn’t like small pox. There have been other measles outbreaks in the US in the last ten years. 100 cases is nothing when you consider how extremely contagious measles is. Not that it is ok, I worry about the people catching measles and that it spread to that many people also. From what I understand someone from outside of the country brought it in and a lot of the cases here have been children too young for vaccination. I’m not sure how many cases were parents who opted out or older adults who never had the disease, or never were vaccinated. That would be interesting to know.

I would say our heard immunity is still fairly high, again because measles is crazy contagious. Without vaccination I’m pretty sure thousands would be sick right now. Possibly hundreds of thousands.

Christie (and for that matter Rand Paul) are the next two in the line of Republican science deniers.

Measles vaccines are between 95 and 97 percent effective. That’s science. Measles is an unpleasant disease an fatal to certain populations.

The politics here is what is overwhelmingly disappointing. In the name of “let’s a get few crazies to vote for us” they deny the irrefutable science.

What gives a parent who decides not to vaccinate their kid the right to make other people ill?

@elbanditoroso How do you surmise that Christie is a science denier? He vaccinated his children. I don’t see where he denies science in general. He isn’t part of the religious right who tends to do that. He is Catholic, not a right wing, religious, Evangelical Christian. The Catholics generally partner with science, accept evolution, and on and on. I don’t know Christie’s position on all science issues, maybe you do and can enlighten me. I would guess his religious beliefs might affect some of his thoughts and ideas on some political issues, but the vaccine question I just don’t see it with him. He does have the problem that a lot of people in his party are Evangelical Christians.

Herd not heard.

I don’t believe anything that comes out of Cristie’s mouth and increasingly little that the news media says or prints. So that’s my take.

The common good (a vaccinated population) outweighs the parents right to choose whether to vaccinate.

Calling for “balance” in this issue IS a problem. There is no balance. One side is right, the other wrong. He should not be equivocating for political gain. That is unconscionable.

@JLeslie He is not a right wing religious science denier, he is a pandering politician! (Yes, I know that is redundant.)

The only reason Christie doesn’t speak out of more sides of his mouth is he only has a couple. The “quarantine a suspected possible non-sick ebola exposure” wants to let measles exposure be a parents choice!

His words aren’t being twisted! He is against vaccination because the President encouraged vaccinations.

It’s a big deal because he both gave the socially responsible answer (I did) and pandered to the radical right (But I support other people’s right to wallow in ignorance) in the same breath.

Gourd forbid a Presidential contender should take a position. “My children were vaccinated because my wife and I agreed that that was the best thing for our children and society.”

I just saw a ridiculous status on Facebook about Christie supposedly saying the Black Plague is a parents choice. That sort shit is as crazy as what the right wing makes up about Obama.

In America, last stats I saw were 95% of children are vaccinated. The media makes it sound like no one is vaccinating anymore.

If every single child in America was vaccinated for measles, with exceptions only for specific health reasons, then still if Disney Land patient zero came into the country with measles, the unvaccinated infants in Disney would be at risk. The elderly who are not immune would be at risk, and the 1% failure rate of the vaccine would be at risk. There is still a lot of measles in the world. Probably around a million cases a year. There are outbreaks almost every year in America, if not every year, even in the last ten years.

@ibstubro I don’t think the majority of parents are thinking about society when it comes to their young children. People vaccinate their children to protect their children.

@zenvelo Pandering; yes, I’ll agree there was probably done of that going on. I still think it has a lot to do with the HPV argument though.

I don’t think the majority of parents are considering a run for the Presidency, @JLeslie.

@JLeslie What is the HPV argument? There was all that Michelle Bachmann batshit crazy stuff (I know, I am being redundant again) in 2012 that was shown to be wrong; there is no argument. The HPV vaccine is safe.

People are inconsistent in this whole thing. Why don’t they pass on the Salk/Sabin vaccine, and risk polio? And skip tetanus altogether?

So Christie quarantined that nurse because she might have Ebola. She didn’t.

As for vaccines. This is important.

@zenvelo During the last Presidential run it came out Republican Rick Perry had supported making the HPV vaccine manditory in TX, or I should say on the schedule. Some Christians freak out because the HPV vaccine implies a girl is going to have sex and the vaccine is given pre-teen/teen years. The state does allow parents to say no, but that got lost in the message, it was just played up that the state forced a sex related vaccine.

Christie said that not all diseases are alike. I think he means some are more likely to cause permanent harm or death, some are airborne, some are only a concern if the person engages in certain acts, and some bother a parent’s values.

Just a little more about HPV, this talks about HPV vaccine legislation. Gov. Rick Perry was the first to enact a mandate by executive order for all 6th grade girls to be vaccinated, and went as far as to veto when the legislature tried to overturn his mandate. It hurt him in republican circles. I think republicans are more likely to remember this, because it was a primaries controversy. I’m a democrat, but medical issues tend to catch my interest and stick with me, and I am not so sure I agree with mandating the HPV vaccine myself. I would think candidates right now are focusing on people who will be voting in the primaries, and then the winner can pivot later and change their schtick slightly when they are speaking to the nation.

@JLeslie So, vaccines in that HPV discussion are still political, not medical. But the HPV vaccine is effective, safe, and good public policy.

Great, Christie gets to say not all diseases are alike.Like to hear him tell people measles aren’t dangerous, or tell a woman with HPV caused cervical cancer that people shouldn’t have to get the vaccine.

@zenvelo Thing is, as far as I can tell Christie hasn’t said any of those things.

@JLeslie Wait, I quoted you saying Christie said not all diseases are alike.

Did he say that or not? Are you twisting his words?

I am saying his words are not being twisted, I say he is contradicting himself to pander to factions in the Republican Party.

“Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think that it’s an important part of being sure we protect their health and the public health.”
Leadership

“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.”
Pandering

He twisted his own words right out of the gate, making him fair game.

@zenvelo My mistake. I meant none of these “Great, Christie gets to say not all diseases are alike.Like to hear him tell people measles aren’t dangerous, or tell a woman with HPV caused cervical cancer that people shouldn’t have to get the vaccine” things you mentioned.

@ibstubro I don’t see that as twisting, but I do see it could be argued it is.

The fact is WHO, FDA, CDC try to capitalize as much as possible on outbreaks to scare the public into vaccinating. Don’t get me wrong, like I said, I am in favor of childhood vaccinations. The media runs with promoting the hysteria, because hysteria causes people to tune in.

Before this Measles outbreak, there was H1N1 flu when it first started coming around. The media showed people desperate, some in tears, wanting to vaccinate their children. The media had really ramped up the panic. I had more than one friend on Facebook asking for prayer, because a family member had the flu and they were sure they were at deaths door. The FDA saw not long into it that it wouldn’t likely be much worse than usual the coming flu season. It wasn’t a Spanish flu ready to kill millions.

Last year half the flu cases were H1N1. Does anyone even realize that flu is still circulating? I doubt many people do because the media stopped talking about it.

I have to say I’m shocked the media talked so much this year about the flu vaccine missing the mark in a big way. I guess they really had no choice when bunches of vaccinated people fell sick.