Democratic White House hopeful and spiritual self-help guru Marianne Williamson gave credence to anti-vaccination theories in a 2012 radio show episode, telling her audience to “do your due diligence” before vaccinating their children.
In a January 2012 episode of her radio show, “Living Miraculously,” Williamson said she agonized as a mother over childhood vaccinations and told her listeners to “be awake” concerning the potential dangers of vaccines. In her conversation with author Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceutical representative, Williamson claimed to have a friend whose child was diagnosed with autism after being vaccinated.
“As with any radio show host, Williamson spoke with a variety of guests from all walks of life and some were provocative,” a spokesman for the Williamson campaign told CNN. “This guest had a specific point of view on the issue, but it’s clear from Williamson’s comments that she was neutral. For example, when someone like Kellyanne Conway is interviewed on CNN, we don’t assume the host agrees with everything she says.”
Williamson, who has made peace and love the cornerstone of her 2020 run, came under fire in June after she called vaccination mandates “Orwellian” and “draconian.”
“The U.S. government doesn’t tell any citizen, in my book, what they have to do with their body or their child,” Williamson told NBC at the time.
The federal government does not mandate vaccinations. The Supreme Court has ruled that states can mandate vaccines, and while all states have laws that mandate students be vaccinated and allow exemptions for medical reasons, many also allow exemptions for religious reasons.
Williamson later apologized on Twitter for her comments, saying that she recognizes the important role vaccines play in saving lives and ending epidemics around the world. Williamson also added that she understands “some of the skepticism” that surrounds Big Pharma. In a July interview with MSNBC, Williamson reiterated that she is “pro-vaccination” and “pro-science.”
The idea that vaccines cause autism has been discredited.
Her guest on the show, Gwen Olsen, is the author of Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, a book that explores the Texas-based mental health activist’s career in and subsequent rejection of the pharmaceutical industry.
Early in the conversation, Olsen confessed that, if she had to do it over again, she would not vaccinate her children. She said that she knows of many people with healthy children that “have higher IQs than many children that are vaccinated” and don’t suffer from “the chronic problems that a lot of the children that are vaccinated do.”
“I think all I’m calling for in this program is for everybody to be awake and really do your due diligence and do your research,” Williamson said during the interview.
Despite being the most-Googled candidate during the second presidential debate, Williamson, who is polling at 1%, is unlikely to qualify for the next round of Democratic debates in September. She has yet to publicly comment on her 2012 remarks.
