Bevin’s running mate, a doctor, says child vaccinations shouldn’t be mandatory
Kentucky lieutenant governor candidate Ralph Alvarado said Thursday he does not think the government should require people to get vaccines for their children.
At a Northern Kentucky Tea Party meeting Thursday night, video-trackers with American Bridge, a political action committee supporting Democrat Andy Beshear in the race for Kentucky governor, recorded Alvarado saying that even though he supported vaccinations, he doesn’t think people should be required to get them. Alvarado is a physician.
“I think it’s good health policy to administer vaccines, but if people don’t want them, we shouldn’t force people to take them,” said Alvarado, a Republican state Senator who is running on a ticket with Gov. Matt Bevin.
Alvarado’s stance mirrors that of Bevin, who drew fire earlier this year after he said he intentionally exposed his kids to chickenpox so they would build an immunity to the disease. Physicians recommend that parents vaccinate their children rather than expose them to the virus, which can sometimes create serious health problems.
Alvarado said several of his friends who are doctors called him after Bevin’s comments, but he defended the governor, who was responding to a question about a student in Northern Kentucky who had been pulled out of school for refusing to get the chickenpox vaccine. Alvarado said more people die from the flu than from chickenpox and not everyone gets the flu vaccine every year.
The debate over vaccines has captured national attention as the anti-vaccine movement has contributed to a rise in measles cases in the U.S. Certain vaccines are mandatory for children to attend school in Kentucky, unless there is a religious or medical exemption. There are no regulations for the vaccination of adults.
“I think it’s a very fine balance. I don’t think we should force anybody to do something they don’t want to do to their own bodies,” Alvarado said. “We are seeing outbreaks, you’re seeing measles outbreaks and other things that are happening and a lot of people forget that a lot of these diseases can be fatal.”
A man in the crowd then asked about “all the kids who are dying from vaccines.” (The World Health Organization says “so few deaths can plausibly be attributed to vaccines that it is hard to assess the risk statistically.”)
“Again, we could debate a lot of that,” Alvardo said “That’s been studied ... but to your question, you should have the right to say no if you don’t want that for your kids.”
The Bevin campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
