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Will a measles outbreak persuade more parents to vaccinate their children? That’s the question people are asking as concern grows about the outbreak linked to Disneyland that has spread to 67 cases across seven states. Some doctors have expressed hope that parents will be more likely to get their children immunized. I hope they’re right, but research suggests that the long-term effects of the outbreak could be worse, not better. The social and political conflicts we’ve seen emerge over the outbreak threaten to polarize the issue along political lines and weaken the social consensus in favor of vaccination. (Brendan Nyhan, 2/2)

It is bad enough that many misguided parents are endangering their own children by refusing to let them be vaccinated against measles and other contagious diseases. But it is shockingly irresponsible of them to put other children and adults at risk of catching measles from their unvaccinated children. (2/3)

The measles outbreak that began at California’s Disneyland — and spread like pixie dust — along with several other, smaller flare-ups, has health officials warning of worse to come. Preventable infectious disease is making its return to the developed world, this time by invitation. ... Resistance to vaccination on the left often reflects an obsession with purity. Vaccines are placed in the same mental category as genetically modified organisms (GMOs), DDT and gluten. But the problem with organic health care is that the “natural” rate of child mortality is unacceptably high. Organically raised children can get some very nasty ­diseases. Opposition to vaccination on the right often reflects an obsession with liberty — in this case, freedom from intrusive state mandates. It has always struck me as odd that a parent would defend his or her children with a gun but leave them vulnerable to a microbe. (Michael Gerson, 2/2)

The U.S. is experiencing an outbreak of measles and other diseases long thought to be eradicated, and some politicians aren’t helping as much as they could. On this score President Obama has it all over Chris Christie. California reports 59 confirmed measles cases, and the U.S. reported 644 in 2014, the most in a quarter-century. In 2012 the U.S. had its biggest whooping cough epidemic since 1955. Nearly 50,000 Americans contracted the disease, which caused 20 deaths—mostly infants under three months. The outbreaks are the result of plunging vaccinations rates, as more parents believe false information about vaccines, including claims that they cause autism. (2/2)

Has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie been hearing the same debate I have? If he has, why on earth would he say that this is a subject where we’re served by “balance”? Parents have rights, absolutely. But this doesn’t just impact their own children. This impacts everyone else’s, too. People who do not understand how diseases work are making everyone else worse off, for no good reason, which we can tell because a disease we thought we had eradicated is now making a comeback. (Alexandra Petri, 2/2)

Today’s tempest on the trail of possible Republican presidential nominees has been New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s seemingly weak defense of vaccinating American children. By calling for “balance” in government policy, and saying that “parents need to have some measure of choice,” Christie was blasted by both liberals and conservatives. By late morning he seemed to be backing off his comments. But Christie's apparent attempt to appeal to vaccination opponents, while a surprising strategy for a governor in a densely populated state, is consistent with a plausible Iowa caucus strategy: an attempt to lock up a small faction of voters. (Jonathan Bernstein, 2/2)

Things got pretty hot in the vaccine debate on Monday as the lines of an emerging culture war were sketched out. On one side, there was President Obama, who urged parents to get their kids vaccinated, calling the science behind vaccines “indisputable. … I just want people to know the facts and science and the information. And the fact is that a major success of our civilization is our ability to prevent disease that in the past have devastated folks.” Then on the other side were likely Republican presidential hopefuls Chris Christie and Rand Paul. Both said parents should have more choice in whether to their kids get vaccinated. Paul took it further, citing “many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.” The divide seemed clear. But wait. Was it? Or had Obama, while campaigning in 2008, actually said something different? That’s at least how Vox called it on Tuesday afternoon. Its headline: “Obama supports vaccines now — but pandered to anti-vaxxers in 2008.” (McCoy, 2/3)