While President Barack Obama is encouraging parents to be sure to get their kids vaccinated in the wake of the measles outbreak in California, citing indisputable science, he was much more skeptical in 2008.
"I understand that there are families that, in some cases, are concerned about the effect of vaccinations,"
Obama told Savannah Guthrie of NBC News during a pre-Super Bowl interview on Sunday.
"The science is pretty indisputable," he added.
However, when Obama was running for president in 2008, he told a crowd at a rally in Pennsylvania that vaccines might play a role in the rise in autism rates, according to
The Washington Post.
"We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate," Obama said. "Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. . . . The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."
Obama received two Pinocchios for the statement, which is
The Washington Post fact checker designation for statements that include "significant omissions and/or exaggerations."
However, Obama wasn't the only presidential candidate in 2008 to suggest the autism link to vaccinations.
"It's indisputable that (autism) is on the rise among children, the question is what's causing it," said then presidential candidate and Arizona Sen. John McCain at a town hall meeting in Texas. "And we go back and forth and there's strong evidence that indicates it's got to do with a preservative in vaccines."
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