--- title: Here's What Dr. Ben Carson Said About Vaccines description: There are two candidates in the 2016 Republican field who are doctors, and they each have a different opinion on vaccines. canonical: https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T15:35:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:24.439Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What the Other Doctor Running for President Said About Vaccines og:description: He disagreed with Rand Paul. og:url: https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f3e31816af71122/69877d17a988ca818e6ac3a6/462076232.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Ben Carson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What the Other Doctor Running for President Said About Vaccines twitter:description: He disagreed with Rand Paul. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f3e31816af71122/69877d17a988ca818e6ac3a6/462076232.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What the Other Doctor Running for President Said About Vaccines > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d2c46a60-312d-475a-adc7-a377434a0ffa&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 3, 2015 3:35 PM UTC  Dr. Ben Carson speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Jan. 24, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Ben Carson speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Jan. 24, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 3, 2015 3:35 PM UTC The flashpoint in the lead up to 2016 turned to vaccinations this week, with everyone from Chris Christie to Hillary Clinton [weighing in on whether the government should mandate vaccines](http://time.com/3693294/hillary-clinton-childhood-vaccinations-medicine-immunizations-rand-paul-chris-christie/). But interestingly, there are two candidates in the Republican field who are doctors, and they came down on very different sides of the issue. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, has said that vaccines [should be voluntary](http://time.com/3692701/rand-paul-vaccinations-measles-christie/). Despite the growing vaccine controversy amid the [current measles outbreak](http://time.com/3692276/measles-numbers-cdc/), Paul stuck to his guns in an [interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell”](http://www.cnbc.com/id/102390366#.) yesterday, saying, “\[I’ve\] heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines” and “The state doesn’t own your children. Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom and public health.” While being anti-mandatory vaccine fits with Paul’s libertarian sensibilities, science, as [TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger writes](http://time.com/3692080/christie-vaccines-antivax/), doesn’t support a link between mental disorders and vaccines. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and another likely 2016 Republican candidate, also waded into the discussion yesterday. “Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society,” Carson said in a [statement](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/231545-ben-carson-backs-vaccines). “Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them.” Carson is a strong supporter of the medical theories behind vaccination. He’s currently chairman of the board of [Vaccinogen, Inc.](http://vaccinogeninc.com/vaccinogen/index.cfm/about-vaccinogen/), a biotech company that hopes to develop vaccines to prevent certain types of cancer. Of course, being a doctor isn’t a guarantee of a politician’s views. While [most of the doctors in Congress are deeply conservative](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/us/politics/doctors-confident-in-their-healing-powers-rush-for-congress.html), the [profession as a whole is becoming more liberal](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/health/policy/30docs.html?pagewanted=all). And views on vaccination, both for and against, [do not fall along partisan lines](http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-5-evolution-climate-change-and-other-issues/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/"},"headline":"Here's What the Other Doctor Running for President Said About Vaccines","datePublished":"2015-02-03T15:35:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:24.439Z","description":"There are two candidates in the 2016 Republican field who are doctors, and they each have a different opinion on vaccines.","url":"https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Vaccines"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f3e31816af71122/69877d17a988ca818e6ac3a6/462076232.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f3e31816af71122/69877d17a988ca818e6ac3a6/462076232.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ben Carson","caption":"Ben Carson","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3693577/ben-carson-vaccine-rand-paul/","name":"Here's What the Other Doctor Running for President Said About Vaccines"}}]}] ```