What every 2020 presidential candidate has said about vaccines
Over the years, President Donald Trump has repeatedly promoted baseless and disproven claims that vaccines are linked to autism — and named vaccine conspiracist Robert Kennedy Jr. to chair a government panel on vaccine safety,
"When the polio and measles vaccines became available for the first time, parents lined up to make sure their kids would be protected," Warren said at a congressional hearing in 2015. "They'd lived in a world of infectious diseases that destroyed children's futures, and they desperately wanted to leave that world behind."
Source: Vox
While Kamala Harris was California's attorney general, her office defended the legality of a law that requires children to be vaccinated in order to attend both public and private schools.
Source: Press-Enterprise
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper recorded a vaccination PSA while mayor of Denver, saying, "every year, thousands of young lives are saved by immunizations," and urging parents to vaccinate their children.
In 2018, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ed Markey introduced the Flu Vaccine Act, which would "support critical research at the National Institutes of Health to finally develop a universal vaccine," Klobuchar said.
Source: Senator Amy Klobuchar
In 2018, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg encouraged his Twitter followers to get their flu shots for the winter. "Just did mine. So easy and quick, and a very important way to protect yourself, your family, and our community," he wrote.
Source: Pete Buttigieg/Twitter
"A straight line can be drawn between the advent of vaccines, antiseptics, antibiotics, and other elements of modern medicine and the vastly improved health of Americans," entrepreneur and author Andrew Yang says on his campaign website. "Very few areas of technological innovation have even come close to that type of return on investment."
Source: Yang 2020
During the Zika virus epidemic in 2016, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii supported legislation to fast-track funding for Zika vaccine research and development.
Source: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also pushed public health officials to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus in 2016, and helped secure $1.6 million in funding for vaccine research and development in New York in 2009.
Author and self-help guru Marianne Williamson discussed vaccines during a 2015 appearance on Bill Maher's show, saying "there’s a public health issue that over-rides individual liberty here, even though I don’t want the government, as a rule, telling me what I can do and can’t do with my body for medical purposes."
Source: Real Time with Bill Maher
Rep. John Delaney of Maryland co-sponsored a congressional resolution "recognizing the importance of vaccinations and immunizations" in 2017.
Source: Congress.gov
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently declared a state of emergency over the current measles outbreak in the state. He also supports legislation that would only allow exemption from vaccination for medical reasons, saying "vaccines are among the most effective ways to protect everyone from serious, preventable illnesses — especially young kids.”
Source: Associated Press
Most states allow children to attend school if they haven't been vaccinated for medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions — but some states are trying to limit the exemptions for medical reasons only.
In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said "I think obviously vaccinations work. Vaccination has worked for many, many years I am sensitive to the fact that there are some families who disagree, but the difficulty is if I have a kid who is suffering from an illness who is subjected to a kid who walks into a room without vaccines, that could kill that child and that’s wrong."
Source: The Daily Beast
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