Comparing Presidential Candidates’ Vaccine Views

Dwonskin Needle

As the race for the Republican presidential nomination heats up, leading candidates have been asked to state their views on a wide range of issues, including public health. On the heels of one of the largest measles outbreaks in years, the conversation about the importance of vaccines and the government’s role in their implementation has risen to the forefront of national conversation. The primary question: should the government mandate that all children receive vaccines, and do parents maintain the right to opt out of vaccines for their children? Given the host of scientific evidence that raises real concerns about the safety of these vaccines, answering this question has proven complex.

Four of the leading Republican presidential nominees have already voiced their opinions about vaccines and each brings to the table a unique perspective.

Carly Fiorina

On the subject of vaccines, former CEO of Hewlett Packard and sole female Republican presidential nominee Carly Fiorina has stated that, “Parents have to make choices for their family and their kids,” insinuating that the government does not in fact retain the right to mandate vaccination. However, Fiorina also acknowledges that it’s difficult to make a blanket statement about vaccines, given that not all vaccines should be viewed in the same light. For example, she notes that parents shouldn’t be forced to have their daughters receive an HPV vaccine at age 11, but that getting a vaccine for the measles makes more sense given that the disease is highly communicable. Ultimately, Fiorina believes that it remains a parent’s choice whether or not their children are vaccinated—though she says school districts are well within their rights to prevent unvaccinated students from attending school—and that religious liberties should not be threatened by any vaccine mandate.

Rand Paul

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul found himself in hot water for his views on vaccines, after stating that he was familiar with children who had been perfectly healthy before a vaccine, yet demonstrated autistic symptoms after administration. The media took Paul to task for these comments and he subsequently went on the defensive by clarifying his remarks. Paul now argues that he believes vaccination as a concept is a good idea; both he and his children have been vaccinated. He supports parental choice, but Paul is also quoted as stating that, “I think the science is clear that if you compare the risks of taking a vaccine to the ill effects of taking a vaccine, [the benefits of vaccination] are overwhelming.

Donald Trump

Rising Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has taken a more definitive stance on vaccines, stating he believes there to be a direct link between vaccines and the rising rate of autism. This view has not been embraced by the mainstream media, even in the face of compelling research linking vaccines containing harmful toxins like mercury to an increased risk for autism. Trump specifically points out that the quantity and timing of vaccines administered to infants are both alarming and dangerous. Trump noted in an earlier interview that he elected to have his own son receive vaccines on a much more protracted timeline to avoid administration of multiple vaccines at once, which he sees as the primary reason vaccines are unsafe. He has not stated whether vaccines should be mandatory for school attendance.

Dr. Ben Carson

Trailing a close second to Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson has endorsed mandatory vaccinations and eschews any link between vaccines and autism. He believes vaccines should be mandatory for school attendance. He recently softened that viewpoint in the September 16 Presidential Debate to support parents right to choose whether to get “new” vaccines such as HPV vaccines. He also stated that the “vaccine schedule should be adjusted so kids are not given such a big load in such a short period of time.”

Clearly, the field of Republican presidential candidates maintains varying views about vaccines and their risk to recipients. Regardless of the nominee, the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute and the other organizations that promote vaccine research and safety can only hope that the candidate considers the full breadth of scientific evidence at hand.

Groundbreaking Research Finds New Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease

New research presents an exciting treatment option for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.  According to the results of a recent experiment, when individuals with early stage Alzheimer’s disease consumed water rich with the element silicon every day for twelve weeks, some showed an improvement in memory and cognitive ability.

This stands out as a momentous finding, as it’s the only proposed treatment in the last 40 years that has actually decreased or altered the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Given that Alzheimer’s disease now affects 44 million individuals around the world and has increased dramatically within the last 50 years, such a promising treatment option merits full consideration and support. Alzheimer’s disease is both debilitating and devastating; individuals that suffer from Alzheimer’s disease can experience memory loss, disorientation, trouble writing and speaking, changes in personality, difficulty thinking, and difficulty making sound decisions, among other negative consequences. Additionally, the cost of caring for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease can reach up to $30,000 a year.  In short, finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is incredibly urgent.

Why did the facilitators of this experiment specifically choose silicon-rich water to give individuals with Alzheimer’s disease? The answer begins with the fact that scientists have long believed that aluminum, an element known to be toxic to the human body, could negatively affect the body’s immune system, cognitive function, and genetic system. Scientists suspected that Alzheimer’s disease, with its increasing prevalence and disruption of cognitive function, could be caused by our heightened exposure to aluminum. 150 published papers over the course of the last 30 years have pointed toward such a relationship. Because aluminum is suspected to be a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease, it made sense to conduct a study with the element that helps rid the body of aluminum: silicon. Thus, by drinking water rich with silicon, individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer’s reduced their body’s aluminum content and subsequently improved their cognitive ability.

This latest finding stands out as one of the most explicit demonstrations of aluminum’s association with Alzheimer’s disease.

In response to this groundbreaking finding, organizations like the Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute are eager to demonstrate their support for this treatment option by increasing public awareness and supporting future research. Specifically, a longer, more wide-scale clinical trial of silicon-rich water is needed to provide additional support for the initial research. Leading aluminum researcher Professor Christopher Exley, who works at the premier research institution Keele University in the U.K., currently seeks funding for a study that would involve a minimum of 50 individuals to be tested over the course of 24 months. The proposed study is endorsed by leaders in the field of Alzheimer’s research, such as George Perry, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and chair of the Neurobiology Department at the University of Texas San Antonio.

The project “The People’s Trial” has been created to raise money to ensure that Professor Exley’s study can be carried out. This crowd-funding project will run for the course of three months starting on July 14th.

Billions of dollars have already been spent on the research and development of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease; however, no drug has yet to be successful. Rather than continue to funnel billions into this area of research, money should be allocated to the more promising treatment of silicon-rich water. Consider, too, that not only is silicon-rich water an effective treatment option, it’s also easy, affordable, and noninvasive.

To learn more about silicon-rich water, The People’s Trial, and to support Professor Exley’s clinical trial, please visit: