To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Rand Paul's vaccinations remarks draw critics from Boehner to 'Ebola nurse'
Rand Paul being a Libertarian tends to be more honest than most politicians are. So, as a doctor when he speaks the truth as a true populist rather than MD propaganda of course he will be vilified by the establishment that wants only unthinking boobs who follow orders here in the U.S. and around the world.
Rand Paul's vaccinations remarks draw critics from Boehner to 'Ebola nurse'
Recent comments on measles outbreak highlight the difficulties the
libertarian Kentucky senator faces in broadening his appeal: ‘He’s a
physician, but the science is very clear,’ Kaci Hickox tells the
Guardian
Kentucky senator Rand Paul: principled even in the face of hard science. Photograph: John Locher/AP
The outsider ethos of Kentucky senator Rand Paul has, together with his father’s legacy, elevated him to the top level of politics in a country tired of politics as usual.
But as Paul and potential Republican presidential candidates speak
out on the measles outbreak spreading across the US, backlash to his own
anti-vaccination remarks suggests a risk that some voters – and one
“Ebola nurse” – may find him a sliver too unusual ... even for a doctor.
Paul told CNBC on Monday that vaccinations could lead to “profound
mental disorders” and that parents “should have some input”, in remarks
that were promptly condemned by medical experts and contradicted by top members of Paul’s own party – and not just because the senator “shushed” his interviewer.
The remarks arrived amid a swirl of public health concerns descending
on Washington: medical officials racing to contain a measles outbreak
were forced to rebuke comments on vaccinations from Republicans with eyes on the White House, and Congress convened a hearing on this season’s relatively ineffective flu vaccine.
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The
Republican House speaker, John Boehner, dismissed Paul’s comments in a
reply to reporters on Tuesday: “I don’t know if we need another law, but
I do believe all children ought to be vaccinated,” Boehner said.
Kaci Hickox, the nurse who found herself in the middle of a political firestorm
last year after she was quarantined upon her return from west Africa
despite never contracting Ebola, joined the chorus of critics on
Tuesday.
“I am very disappointed with Rand Paul’s statements,” Hickox told the
Guardian in a phone interview. “I know he’s a physician, but the
science is very clear, and I hope that he and other leaders consider the
different sides of an issue before making statements about vaccines
that are unfounded in science.
“I wouldn’t trust anyone in a leadership position who wasn’t
following the science,” she added when asked about comments about
vaccinations this week from other potential candidates.
The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, whose Ebola policy led to a mandatory 21-day quarantine for Hickox against her will, kicked off the most recent public health tempest during a trip to London by saying that in setting vaccinations policy, the government must strike a “balance” between public health and parental discretion.
In an immediate attempt to squash the criticism,
a Christie spokesman issued a follow-up statement, saying: “With a
disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated.”
Rand Paul, disruptive political idealist
Longtime observers of Paul’s political career – and his record on
issues from climate change to the handling of Ebola cases – saw the same
Paul they have always known: more faithful to libertarian principles
than to science. On the vaccines issue, however, Paul may have arrived
at a juncture where his political philosophy loses its traction on
public policy – and potentially limits his appeal to a broader
constituency.
“The meta-message that he’s sending is definitely libertarian and
directed at this base, which, unlike most politicians, I think he’s
consciously trying to expand,” said Al Cross, director of the Institute
for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky.
“If he can find a way to say something that his base both subscribes
to, and general listeners can say, ‘Yes, well, I agree with that’ – that
has the gradual effect of expanding the base.
“He does seem to be a skeptic of science in more than one regard.”
Paul’s career, from the time he was a practicing ophthalmologist in
Kentucky, has always been marked by disruptive political idealism. An
objection to the certification policies of the American Board of
Ophthalmology led Paul to form his own certification system. He has used
his medical background to summon political authority, as when he
criticized the Obama administration’s handling of Ebola patients in the
United States last fall.
Warning that the disease was easier to catch than Aids and suggesting
that medical officials were mishandling the outbreak, Paul said of
White House officials: “You start to wonder about a basic level of
competence.” Ultimately, the Ebola protection measures proved
sufficient. But Paul gave voice to the same authority he seeks on other
issues, including man-made climate change.
Paul describes the science behind man-made climate change as
inconclusive. “Somebody tell me what 100 years’ data is in an Earth that
is 4.6 billion years old?” he said
last spring in a conversation with former presidential adviser David
Axelrod. “My guess is that the conclusions you make from that are not
conclusive.”
Paul has been similarly slow to heed scientific warnings of dangers
to his constituents from pollution due to coal-mining practices such as
mountaintop removal, said Thom Kay of the pro-environment nonprofit
group Appalachian Voices.
“He’s really shown no sign that he cares about any of the science
that says how bad mountaintop-removal coal mining is for water quality,”
Kay said. “It’s the sort of thinking that I think he takes to climate
change.”
Kay said that Paul had not sought ways to move the costs associated
with environmentally harmful mining away from residential communities
and back to coal companies.
“It’s against his political beliefs to shift those costs back to a
company, and because of that, it seems really difficult for him even to
admit that carbon dioxide is real pollution, or that dumping coal-mining
waste into streams is going to pollute the streams,” Kay said. “The
science is really clear on it … But instead of recognizing any of that,
he sort of ignores it. More so than denies it.”
Cross, of the University of Kentucky, said Paul was generally good at speaking to multiple audiences.
“He has this rhetorical trope of phrasing things in a way that it
sounds to the people out there on the fringe that he’s agreeing with
them,” said Cross. “But if you really parse his statements, he’s leaving
himself room for fact-based logical dialogue. When he says something
like, ‘there has to be a role for parents’ – well, most people can agree
with that.”
Measles cases in 14 states have been tied to an initial case in December at Disneyland theme park in southern California. Confirmed cases include five Disney employees. The Centers for Disease Control counted 102 measles cases total in January, a year after the worst outbreak of measles since its elimination was documented in the United States in 2000, with 644 cases recorded in 27 states in 2014.
“The stakes are high and this is a disease that we’re seeing,” Hickox
told the Guardian. “The current outbreak is over 100, but those numbers
will probably continue to grow because of the infectiousness of
measles.”
Another prominent doctor turned political figure who is expected to
seek the Republican nomination in 2016, Ben Carson, also injected
himself into the measles debate on Tuesday.
“Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of
parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that
public health and public safety are extremely important in our society,”
Carson said in a statement.
At a hearing on the underwhelming flu vaccine before the House energy
and commerce subcommittee, one congressman read part of Paul’s
interview aloud and asked the four scientists before him what they
thought.
The senator’s comments were not backed up by science, the witnesses all said.
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