By all rights, Rand Paul's dreams of becoming president should have been smashed on Monday, when he tried to throw a bone to the anti-vaxxer crowd. But it turns out that Kentucky's junior senator should have never been in the discussion in the first place. The NYT discovered that Paul is a longtime supporter of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a far-right medical association that not only gives succor to anti-vaxxer nonsense, but also pushes other ideas that have long been deemed complete bollocks in the mainstream medical community. Paul was a dues-paying member for over two decades until his election to the Senate, and even spoke at their 2009 meeting in Nashville.
Well, it turns out that Rand's father, Ron, is also a member of AAPS. Its October 2002 newsletter touted Paul père and his longstanding tendency to vote against any law he considers unconstitutional. AAPS is of a piece with the Pauls; it is a hard-core libertarian outfit that opposes virtually any government intervention in health care. Arthur Caplan of NYU calls AAPS "libertarians in white coats."
But it turns out that anti-vaxxerism is actually one of the saner planks in the AAPS platform. In an article I wrote at Liberal America, I recount that AAPS has been drinking the anti-vaxxer Kool-Aid for a long time. It published an article linking certain vaccines to heart disease that drew a public rebuke from the WHO.
Another article calling for further study of the link between MMR and autism was published just months after Brian Deer's devastating article revealing that Andrew Wakefield's now-infamous study was brimming over with conflicts of interest. You mean to tell me that development didn't go unnoticed at AAPS? That article has not been retracted, even after Wakefield's study was comprehensively exposed as unethical and fraudulent. Another article claiming that leprosy was directly linked to an influx of undocumented immigrants was completely debunked by NPR, 60 Minutes and the NYT. And yet, it hasn't been retracted either. There are a couple of guys at my church who absolutely love Paul père, and have been trying to get me to embrace the Libertarian Party--especially since they know I'm almost a libertarian socially. Wonder what they'll think once they find out about their hero's links to this outfit.
Paul fils says that just because he is a longstanding supporter of AAPS, he doesn't support everything it preaches. That's true, Rand. But why would you, your father, or any self-respecting doctor, align yourself with any group that continues to push this kind of nonsense even after it's debunked? Until you can answer that, do this country a favor and stay out of the presidential campaign.