The row over vaccinations has spilled into the 2016 United States presidential race, with one Republican hopeful angering doctors by giving credence to discredited fears about whether or not vaccines are safe.
Measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000, but an outbreak that began at Disneyland in California in December has shone a spotlight on the so-called anti-vaccination movement.
As the measles outbreak spread to more than a dozen states, one Republican presidential hopeful angered doctors by giving credence to discredited fears about whether or not vaccines are safe.
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ophthalmologist, said in an interview with CNBC that he had heard of instances where vaccines caused “mental disorders”.
“I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,” he said.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Republican and potential 2016 presidential candidate, said he and his wife had vaccinated their children but parents needed a “measure of choice”.
“There has to be a balance, and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is, and all the rest … Not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others,” he said.
His spokesman later said the governor believed kids should be vaccinated against measles.
Other possible contenders urged parents to make sure their children get the necessary vaccines.
“There is absolutely no medical science or data whatsoever that links those vaccinations to onset of autism or anything of that nature,” senator Marco Rubio of Florida said.
“So absolutely, all children in American should be vaccinated.”
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, told reporters all children should be vaccinated.
“I don’t know that we need another law, but I do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated,” he said.
Republican Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said there was a “lot of fear-mongering” on the issue.
“I have no reservations about whether or not it is a good idea and desirable for all children to be vaccinated,” he said.
Hillary Clinton, widely seen as the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was perhaps the most blunt.
On Monday, she wrote on Twitter: “The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork.”
Obama urges parents to vaccinate kids
President Barack Obama this week urged parents to have their children vaccinated against preventable diseases such as the measles.
He said that while he understood there were families concerned about the effect of vaccinations, he said the science was “pretty indisputable.”
“We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not,” he told NBC.
“You should get your kids vaccinated.”
He said the larger the group of unvaccinated people, the more vulnerable it made small infants and people who cannot get vaccinations because of health issues.
Debunked theories that once suggested a link between vaccines and autism have led some parents to refuse to have their children inoculated.
Even though doctors say those fears are unfounded, many parents want to decide for themselves whether to vaccinate their children.
There have been 91 measles cases in California, with at least 58 of those epidemiologically linked to a cluster that began at Disneyland.
More than a dozen other cases have been confirmed in 13 other US states and in Mexico.
No deaths have been reported in connection with the outbreak.
AFP/Reuters