Hillary: ‘The science is clear’ on vaccines

Hillary Clinton on Monday took to Twitter to weigh in on the controversy over vaccinations and deliver a shot at Republicans.

The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2015

Clinton’s tweet comes after two potential Republican presidential contenders on Monday attracted criticism for suggesting that parents should be able to decide whether to vaccinate their children.

{mosads}New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said parents should have a “measure of choice” on the issue, before later walking back that statement.

“The Governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated,” said a statement from Christie’s office.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, though, argued that the “state doesn’t own your children.”

“Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom and public health,” he said in an interview on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

Democrats were quick to criticize those remarks, which come amid a measles outbreak that public health officials warn could spread because of the anti-vaccination movement.

During the 2008 campaign, though, Clinton addressed an anti-vaccine group and cited a study at the time that raised concerns about a link between autism and vaccines.

“I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines,” Clinton told the group.

Then-candidate Obama also noted concerns about such a link in 2008.

The study in question, though, has since been discredited in the medical community.

Some Republicans expressed support for vaccinations on Monday.

Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon who is weighing a 2016 run, said that dangerous diseases should not be allowed to return “by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons.”