'The science is clear': Grandmother Hillary Clinton breaks with 2008 Hillary Clinton on vaccines

Brett T. | 11:29 PM on February 02, 2015

It’s the moment quite a few were waiting for. As the media spent the day painting all Republicans as anti-science, flat-earth types in light of comments made by Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul on vaccinations, conservatives wondered when Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton would emerge from her Twitter silence and declare her position.

The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2015

Well, she couldn’t be much more clear than that. “Grandmothers know best,” perhaps, but what about those years before she was a grandmother?

I'm glad you've abandoned your 2008 anti-vaxxer position. @HillaryClinton

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 3, 2015

Phil Kerpen had better be prepared to have that tweet analyzed by PolitiFact. Until then, Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller and others can help fact-check.

Oh look, Hillary Clinton also flirted with the theory that vaccinations increase autism risk. http://t.co/u5iBFdEQCi

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 2, 2015

The anti-vax group Hillary pandered to was called Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning. http://t.co/u5iBFdEQCi

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 3, 2015

Ross writes:

As The Huffington Post and The American Prospect reported in April of that year, Clinton called for more research into the autism-vaccination link in response to a questionnaire from the group Advocates for Children’s Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning, or A-CHAMP.

Clinton wrote that she was “committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines.”

And in response to the question of whether she would support more research into a link between vaccinations and autism rates, Clinton wrote: “Yes. We don’t know what, if any, kind of link there is between vaccines and autism – but we should find out.”