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Vaccinate children or keep them home

The governor of New Jersey's comments about the current measles outbreak has gotten a lot of attention, but it is Pennsylvania that has more to fear from the childhood disease that can be fatal. The Keystone State ranks among the last in the nation in its percentage of kindergarten-age children who have been vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With only 85 percent of its kindergarten-age children immunized against measles, mumps, and rubella, Pennsylvania is more susceptible to those childhood diseases, along with Kansas, 87 percent; Arkansas, 86 percent; and Colorado, 82 percent.

According to the CDC, 97 percent of New Jersey kindergartners have had the MMR vaccination. Maybe that's why Christie felt free to play politics in earlier suggesting it was fine for parents not to have their children vaccinated. He has since backed off that position in acknowledging the risk to public safety. But another Republican presidential contender, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, has not.

On a syndicated radio show Monday, Paul said parents should have the "freedom" not to inoculate their children. By the way, 92 percent of Kentucky kindergarteners have had their MMR shots.

Paul and Christie have been pandering to anti-government conservatives who have been a strong voice in determining who wins Republican primaries in recent years, especially in the South. But it is wrong for them to play politics with public health, especially with the country fighting an outbreak of measles that has spread to 14 states since mid-December.

This is a disease that was declared eliminated in the United States 15 years ago. And it can be eliminated again if parents have their children vaccinated. All the myths about vaccinations causing autism or mental retardation have been proven false. That's the message that needs to be repeated over and over — and not just among conservatives. Studies show some of the most entrenched anti-vaccine attitudes can be found among affluent, highly educated, liberals. At the other end of the spectrum are poor children with limited access to health care.

All 50 states require childhood vaccinations, but all except Mississippi and West Virginia allow religious exemptions and 20 also allow philosophical exemptions. Those exemptions provide the "freedom" Paul talks about, but freedom has limits. Just as free speech doesn't mean you're free to yell "fire" in a crowded theater, it doesn't mean parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated should be allowed to put other people's health, if not  their lives, in danger.

Harold Jackson is editorial page editor of The Inquirer