Kentucky senator Rand Paul backpedalled Tuesday on comments he made about vaccines that quickly drew the condemnations of everyone from medical professionals to senior Republican party members to the formerly quarantined healthcare provider best remembered for calling out Paul’s potential rival for the White House.
Paul’s attempt at clarification landed as Republicans in Washington, from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to House speaker John Boehner to the dozen or so members of the prospective 2016 presidential field scrambled to describe their views on vaccination.
Following controversial comments by New Jersey governor Chris Christie regarding a measles outbreak spreading across the US, Paul set off another cascade of criticism when he told CNBC on Monday that vaccinations could lead to “profound mental disorders” and that parents “should have some input”.
In his follow-up statement, Paul sought to make a distinction between correlation and causation – the kind of science-minded distinction that some of his critics saw him as abandoning.



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