Fiorina: Vaccinations should be left up to parents

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said Thursday that vaccinations should be left up to parents — a view that puts her in sharp contrast with at least one other Republican presidential candidate.

“First of all, we must protect religious liberty and someone’s ability to practice their religion,” Fiorina said Thursday when asked about religious freedom and vaccinations at a town hall event in Iowa. “We must devote energy and resources to doing so, period. When in doubt, it is always the parents’ choice.”


Fiorina said her daughter was “bullied” by a school nurse into giving Fiorina’s granddaughter an HPV shot.

“Our daughter said, ‘You know, measles is one thing, but some of these vaccinations now that they’re asking particularly young girls to get at age 10 and 11, I don’t want to do that.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want you to do it, either,’” Fiorina said. “And she got bullied, she got bullied by a school nurse.”

Fellow GOP presidential candidate and former New York Gov. George Pataki took to Twitter on Friday to condemn her comments.

“Pandering for votes isn’t going to win us back the Presidency,” Pataki tweeted. “Optional vaccinations is bad for public health & bad politics. @CarlyFiorina. Not sure how you run a major tech company @HP & reject accepted science that has eradicated diseases like small pox & polio @CarlyFiorina.”

Fiorina did say school districts should be able to deny students admittance if they haven’t had certain vaccines.

“I think when we’re talking about some of these more esoteric immunizations, then I think absolutely a parent should have a choice and a school district shouldn’t be able to say, ‘Sorry, your kid can’t come to school for a disease that’s not communicable, not contagious, and where there really isn’t any proof that [vaccinations] are necessary at this point,’” she said.

On Friday, Fiorina said claims that she wanted kids to get measles were “ridiculous.”

She said she believes that parents should have a choice, but she also highly recommends parents vaccinate “their kids against highly contagious diseases.” Fiorina was speaking on Fox News “On the Record.”

Fiorina was speaking in Iowa, a state where her presence has grown since she was widely dubbed the shining star of the “happy hour” GOP debate on Aug. 6 for the candidates who didn’t qualify in the Top 10. According to a Suffolk University poll released earlier this week, Fiorina, at 7 percent, is tied for fifth place in Iowa with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.