Chris Christie Says Vaccinating Your Kids Should Be a Choice

In remarks that may be too much even for the political party that consistently denies the existence of climate change, Chris Christie says that it’s important to strike a “balance” when it comes to vaccinations. Damn, I knew Republicans like to harken back to the 1950s, but bringing back measles as a rite of passage seems extreme.

Just yesterday, Barack Obama (in keeping with the recommendations of the CDC, the agency responsible for ensuring we don’t all die of preventable bullshit) recommended unequivocally that you vaccinate your children, so fer chrissakes please stop talking about “toxins” and also the study that originally suggested a link between vaccines and autism has SINCE BEEN DISCREDITED and its author driven from the medical profession in shame and disgrace.

Well, apparently the election cycle has become such a cat-5 hurricane of crap that somebody just HAD to disagree. Ironically, that somebody was Chris Christie of the famous Ebola freakout. I guess he’s only worried about scary African diseases, not good old-fashioned American diseases like measles. According to MSNBC, he said:

“We vaccinate ours [kids], and so, you know that’s the best expression I can give you of my opinion,” Christie said when asked if he would urge Americans to vaccinate their children. “You know it’s much more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. And that’s what we do. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”

When the reporter followed up, asking whether he thinks vaccines are actually dangerous, he replied with this wishy-washy garbled bit of WTF: “I didn’t say that – I said different disease types can be more lethal so that the concern would be measuring whatever the perceived danger is by a vaccine and we’ve had plenty of that over a period of time versus what the risk to public health is. And that’s exactly what I mean by what I said.”

YOU IRRESPONSIBLE, PANDERING SHIT-HEAD. We’re not even talking about tax cuts or school vouchers, here, some traditional conservative small-government talking point—we’re talking about throwing the car in reverse and accelerating away from one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century toward the goddamn Middle Ages. Your average ancestor circa 1810 would probably rip every hair out of your head if she thought you were seriously considering turning your back on an invention that renders a great scourge powerless.

The worst part is, Christie clearly thinks vaccines are safe and important enough that he’s gotten them for his own kids and yet here he is, abrogating his responsibility as a public figure with this kind of sure-do-whatever talk. Your opinion as a parent is NOT what matters most here. 2016 is gonna be great, you guys!!!!!!!! Let’s hope the ghost of Jonas Salk bursts into a presidential debate, screaming like a banshee about herd immunity.