Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said he thinks everyone should be encouraged to get vaccines and that he’s not sure he’s any different than President Obama on the matter.
“You know, I got annoyed that people were trying to depict me as someone who didn’t think vaccines were a good idea,” he said on Wednesday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” saying he got vaccinated before his recent trip to Guatemala, got vaccinated as a kid and vaccinated his own children.
“I don’t have an objection at all to that, but I got somehow depicted as I’m somehow someone who doesn’t believe in vaccines, and I wanted to make sure they knew I was getting my booster vaccine,” he said in the video flagged by Mediaite.
Mr. Paul said in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham earlier in the week that he’s not “anti-vaccine” at all, but for the most part they should be voluntary, later saying on CNBC he’s heard of “tragic cases” of normal children who wound up with mental disorders after vaccines.
He later tweeted out a picture of him getting a booster shot for Hepatitis A and clarified in a statement that he supports vaccines and said he did not allege “causation” between vaccines and disorders.
“I think everyone should be encouraged to get vaccines, but the interesting debate that sort of people missed on this is of all the political people they talk to, I’m not sure I’m any different than the president or anybody else on the position,” Mr. Paul continued. “We have rules to encourage people to have vaccines in the country, but I don’t think anybody’s recommending that we hold ’em down.”
“And the way we’ve policed it is through school — basically, you can’t go be among the other kids unless you’ve had your vaccinations and that is a way of trying — it’s an encouragement and somewhat of a mandate, but it’s really been more of an encouragement that people get it,” he said.
“But interestingly, 48 out of 50 states do have a religious as well as philosophic exemption if you have a problem. But for the most part, you need the vast majority of people to take a vaccine — that’s how you get immunity for everyone,” Mr. Rand said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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