Should unvaccinated children be in public schools?

The issue of whether unvaccinated children should be allowed in public schools is "not for us to decide," Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in an interview on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"That is a local and state thing," Fauci said. "What we can do is...get the information about you having a very good vaccine. You have a highly contagious disease and you have a disease that is entirely preventable. When you look at that data with the same vaccine, the conclusion is really almost obvious."

Fauci's comments came amidst a measles outbreak in the United States that has resulted in more than 150 cases reported across 16 states. Public health officials have said the disease has spread in part because of lower rates of vaccination in certain parts of the United States.

Still, Fauci argued that the decision whether or not to allow unvaccinated children to attend public schools is not a decision for his agency, which falls within the National Institutes of Health.

He said the government can educate people by getting the message out the benefits of vaccination.

"It isn't just people who have deep philosophical problems with vaccinations, there are some people who for reasons not as deeply philosophical as that that you can get to and turn them around," Fauci said.

CBS News chief medical correspondent Jon LaPook said his approach to parents who are nervous about vaccinating their children is to "be gentle and not make them defensive."

"I say to them, 'Look, I understand if you have a fear it's because you're trying to protect your kids. It's your job as a parent to keep your kids safe.' But I point out logically that this all started with an article in 1998 that turned out to be completely inaccurate and was retracted twelve years later," he said. "The problem is...the mischief was already done."

"I can try to be as logical as I can and point out the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks but when something's out there in the ether, there's this almost Pavlovian condition response," LaPook said. "They hear the word 'vaccination' and they think, 'oh, dangerous.'"

He said that he was not surprised the issue has become politicized, since so many medical issues today are.

"You understand why on the one hand some people want to have the sense of personal control and freedom, but on the other hand we have the issue of protecting society. I mean there are things like drunk driving for example: We do not allow people to go out there and just say look I want to go out there, get loaded, get drunk and drive my car. We don't allow that," he said.