--- 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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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  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"}}]}] ```