'Anti-vaxxer' film screened by Republicans as Trump says to get shots

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A film that promises to shatter the "myth" that vaccines are safe and effective is on the bill for "movie night" Friday at a meeting of Pierce County Republicans in Gig Harbor.

"Join us as we expose the biggest public health experiment . . . ever" says promotion for the showing of "Vaccines Revealed", which features featuring Robert Kennedy Jr., and two dozen leading "anti-vaxxers."

The movie night at Cottesmore Cafe in Gig Harbor follows on the heels of intense, almost unanimous Republican opposition to a vaccination bill that has just passed the Washington Legislature.

The United States is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years, with 73 confirmed cases -- more than a tenth of the nationwide total -- in Washington. Clark County is the center of the outbreak.

RELATED: 'Anti-vaxxers' lose: State Senate removes exemption for vaccinations

The Centers for Disease Control reported late Friday that the total of measles cases has risen to 695. Three hundred students at two Los Angeles-area college campuses are under quarantine due to exposure to the easily transmitted disease.

The Legislature passed and sent to Gov. Jay Inslee legislation that removes personal or philosophical exemptions as grounds for withholding vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for school-bound children.

Although a Clark County Republican, Rep. Paul Harris, is a lead sponsor, Republicans lined up against the bill. It passed the state House of Representatives on a 56-40 vote, and the State Senate on a close 25-22 vote.

Not a single Republican state senator backed the legislation. Two Democrats also cast No votes. Senate Republicans used procedural maneuvers trying to keep the Senate from voting before a cutoff deadline on legislation.

(Rich Smith detailed Republicans' delay tactics in The Stranger, and political tracker Zach Wurtz spotted the upcoming showing of Vaccines Revealed.)

President Trump has been all over the place on vaccines, and has frequently spouted nonsense. In 2012 and 2014, Trump used Twitter to spout the disproved claim that measles vaccines are linked to autism.

"Massive combined inoculations to small children is the cause for big increase in autism," Trump claimed in 2012 on Twitter, a claim since proven to be false. He repeated the claim in 2014 with a capitalized "AUTISM."

Trump played to the "anti-vaxxers" during a 2015 Republican candidate debate, saying "Autism has become an epidemic . . . I am totally in favor of vaccination. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time."

But the current measles outbreak has spread to 22 states -- a disease supposedly eradicated early in this century.

RELATED: Ignore bizarre bunk: Legislature must require kids' vaccination

The President was sounding a different note Friday morning. "They have to get the shots," Trump said of children. "The vaccines are so important. This is really going around now. They have to get their shots."

The American College of Physicians, earlier this year, released a 10-year study of 657,461 Danish schoolchildren, which found no link between MMR vaccine and autism.

The Center for Disease Control has done 9 studies over the past 16 years, again finding no link to autism.

Trump met two years ago with Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist who testified before the Legislature earlier this year. (He claimed that Vitamin A is the best cure for measles.) Afterward, Kennedy said Trump had asked him to chair a panel on "vaccination safety and scientific integrity."

The White House thought better of it.

One high profile "anti-vaxxer" is Daria Shine, wife of Bill Shine, until recently White House communications director and formerly a top executive at Fox News.