Today on “The 700 Club,” televangelist Pat Robertson waxed nostalgic about the days when kids who had the measles and mumps simply lived through the experience and “just got immune” rather than receiving a vaccination. Not only did Robertson come out against vaccination mandates, but he also suggested that water fluoridation could lead to detrimental health effects.

“I’m sure that there’s some serious consequences to measles and perhaps vaccinations is the answer, but I don’t think any parent should be forced by the government to vaccinate,” he said. “There was a vaccination against polio and I know the mother of a friend contracted polio from the vaccine, so all vaccines are not benign. But, so far, this one about whooping cough and diphtheria and measles has been very effective and I think it was a good thing to do, but the problem is, natural immunity is a pretty good thing and if you have some of these diseases when you’re a kid you have immunity the rest of your life.”

Robertson linked his criticisms of vaccine mandates to water fluoridation: “I just think that we’ve got to be careful that we fall for these nostrums, you know, you have to put fluoride in all of the water because it will cut down on cavities. But what does fluoride do to people? We don’t know some of the consequences, we don’t have all of the knowledge we need and we should be very careful not to force people to do stuff that they earnestly feel they shouldn’t do.”