Sen. Rand Paul said on the Alex Jones show that mandatory vaccines are a slippery towards “martial law.”
Paul, a Republican candidate for president, told Jones--a leading conspiracy theories--that vaccine mandates are troublesome to him.
“Well I mean the first sort of thing you see with martial law is mandates. And they’re talking about making it mandatory. I worry because the last flu vaccine we had in the 1970s, more people died from the vaccine than died from the swine flu,” Paul said, per MediaMatters.org.
“I think you have to use your brain, but I think every individual should be allowed to make that choice. For example, twenty years ago my parents gave me smallpox vaccine, and I would do it again. You know, smallpox was an awful disease and the vaccine wiped smallpox out of, you know, civilization, basically, the only people left with it are bioterrorism labs that have smallpox.”
Paul argues that the decision isn’t about whether it’s good or bad to take vaccines, but whether they should be government-mandated or up to the individual.
According to the website, Paul and Jones have a close relationship. Paul used Jones’ popular radio show as a was to promote himself during his campaign for the Kentucky Senate race. And Jones has said he’s known Rand Paul since around 1995.
Paul also elaborated on what vaccines he would or would not take.
“I would have also taken the polio vaccine, I know a lot of people had polio and we stopped it, but am I going to take the swine flu vaccine?” he said. “Unlikely, until I’m certain that it’s safe. And I’m not going to have my kids take it until I know it’s safe. But I’m not absolutely saying that I won’t take the vaccine.”
“But I say you have to be careful, you have to weigh the risks of the disease versus the risks of the vaccine, but I’m not going to tell people who think it’s a bad idea that they have to take it because everybody should be allowed to make their own health care decisions, and that’s the problem with allowing more and more government. There was a vaccine about three years ago for rotavirus. It’s a diarrhea type virus for children. They started giving the vaccine but kids started dying from a blockage in their intestine, which they linked to the vaccine. But it took them six months to figure this out. And meanwhile they had already talked about making it mandatory.”
Earlier this week, Paul courted controversy said he’s heard of vaccines causing serious “mental disorders,” reported CNN.
“I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines,” Paul noted. “I’m not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they’re a good thing. But I think the parents should have some input.”
