Legally Limiting Lies About Vaccines
JURIST - Academic Commentary, 2015
Posted: 21 Nov 2015
Date Written: November 17, 2015
Abstract
Heard enough about the potential for childhood vaccines to cause autism or other harms? So have we. For decades, politicians have replayed over and over misbeliefs about the alleged risks of autism and other injuries from childhood vaccines. In the September 2015 Republican Presidential Debate, the one-time front-runner Donald Trump alleged he knew of a 2-year-old who was vaccinated, got a "tremendous fever" and "now is autistic."
Other Republican Presidential candidates, including medical doctors Rand Paul and Ben Carson, support vaccines but suggest they should be spaced out over a longer period than a child's first three years. Previously Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman resonated their own anti-vaccination sentiments. In 2008 even President Obama acknowledged others' concerns about potential links between vaccines and autism.
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