Howard Dean in The New York Times

On Health Care: Only anti-government conservatives oppose vaccines

Howard Dean, a presidential candidate in 2004 and a former DNC chairman, said there are three groups of people who object to required vaccines: "One is people who are very much scared about their kids getting autism, which is an idea that has been completely discredited. Two, is entitled people who don't want to put any poison in their kids and view this as poison, which is ignorance more than anything else. And three, people who are antigovernment in any way."

"But the truth," added Dean, a physician, "is you can be conservative without putting kids in harm's way." The issue has more political potency among conservative voters who are highly skeptical of anything required by the government.