Asked about Michele Bachmann’s remarks suggesting a link between the HPV vaccine and mental retardation, Rick Perry indicated he saw no connection.
“You heard the same arguments about giving our children protections from some of the childhood diseases, and they were.. autism was part of that. Now we’ve subsequently found out that was generated and not true,” Perry told NBC News.
“I would suggest to you,” Perry added, “that this issue about Gardasil and making it available was about saving people’s lives.”
Perry also said he was “taken aback” by the few cheers that erupted in the audience at the suggestion that candidates should favor letting uninsured sick people die if they get a serious disease.
“We’re the party of life,” he said. “We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives.”