You may have heard that loony right wing creationist neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson came out yesterday with a pretty strong statement in support of vaccinations.

Well, that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone. Today Carson has gotten his xenophobic marching orders, and he’s blaming the measles outbreak on immigrants.

“These are things that we had under control. We have to account for the fact that we now have people coming into the country sometimes undocumented people who perhaps have diseases that we had under control,” he said. “So now we need to be doubly vigilant about making sure that we immunize them to keep them from getting diseases that once were under control.”

Dr. Carson is apparently unaware that Central American countries and Mexico typically have higher rates of vaccination than the United States — because in these countries, they know very well the horrible toll diseases like measles can exact, and they take it seriously. (Unlike the US, where a lot of people have seemingly forgotten this natural fact.)

Oh, and also? Carson defended Rand Paul’s statement that parents should be allowed to choose whether or not to have their children vaccinated.

“Well, I listened to what he said and I think perhaps it’s not exactly being portrayed the way he meant it. You know, if you were to talk to him, I’m sure he would tell you that vaccines are very, very important and have made a tremendous difference in our society,” Carson said. “He’s simply saying we don’t want to be forced. We want to have some choice. And I think there are ways to do this in a reasonable and rational way that involves educating the populace. There were a lot of myths going around about vaccinations causing autism.”

The GOP is very rapidly becoming the party that enshrines anti-vaccine doctrine as a matter of personal choice … or “illegals” … or “religious freedom” …