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 In excerpts from an interview with NBC News that will air on
Monday, Obama said measles was a preventable disease.
He said that while he understood there were families concerned about
the effect of vaccinations, he said the science was "pretty
indisputable."
"We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get
vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not," he said, adding: "You
should get your kids vaccinated."
He said the larger the group of unvaccinated people, the more
vulnerable it made small infants and people who cannot get
vaccinations because of health issues.
 There have been 91 measles cases in California, with at least 58 of
those epidemiologically linked to a cluster that began at Disneyland
in December. More than a dozen other cases have been confirmed in 13
other U.S. states and in Mexico.
No deaths have been reported in connection with the outbreak, which
public health officials suspect began when an infected person from
outside the United States visited Disneyland in Anaheim, California,
between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20.
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The measles outbreak has renewed a debate over the so-called
anti-vaccination movement in which fears about potential side
effects of vaccines, fueled by now-debunked research suggesting a
link to autism, have led a small minority of parents to refuse to
allow their children to be inoculated.
Some parents also opt not to have their children vaccinated for
religious or other reasons.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney)
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