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Anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree speaks with reporters before attending an anti-vaccine event in Brooklyn. (Yana Paskova / For the Washington Post)
Ben Guarino
Reporter covering the practice and culture of science
NEW YORK – Anti-vaccine activists held their second rally for weeks on Tuesday night, questioning vaccine safety in a community facing the worst measles outbreak in nearly 30 years, amid protests from health officials and parents who support vaccination.
The event, which prevented journalists, brought together the conspiracy theorist Rabbi Hillel Handler and Del Bigtree, head of one of the country's most active anti-vaccine groups and producer of a film alleging that the government had removed a link between measles vaccine and autism (studies involving hundreds of people). thousands of children have repeatedly denied such a link).
"They should be allowed to have measles if they want measles," Bigtree told reporters outside the meeting. "It's crazy that there is so much intensity around a common childhood illness."
The New York City senior health official pointed out that measles was a serious and potentially fatal disease and condemned the event with unusual vigor several hours before his event.
"Organizing an anti-vaccination rally in the midst of an epidemic is irresponsible. it's downright dangerous, "he said Oxiris Barbot, health commissioner of the city. "New Yorkers are at risk of spreading misinformation, including children too young to get vaccinated or those whose health status makes vaccination impossible."
"As a pediatrician and public health officer, I am more than frustrated by the fact that such misinformation is arousing fear and hurting hundreds of innocent children," she wrote. an article in the Health Affairs blog. She criticized anti-vaccine activists for "manipulating public opinion instead of the facts" and "targeting certain communities in Brooklyn with false claims that the vaccine would be dangerous and cause autism and autoimmune disorders ". She added: "They have the habit of using strategies – from anonymous automated calls to forwarding false information via the web – with impunity because they have no one to hold them for responsible for misinformation. "
New York State health officials and the federal government have blamed anti-vaccine groups for the measles outbreaks that have spread to ultra-Orthodox communities, here and in Rockland County, in the United States. the state of New York. in receptive and often island communities. As a result, parents hesitate or refuse to vaccinate their children, and as vaccination rates drop, the highly contagious and sometimes deadly virus can gain a foothold and spread quickly.
On Monday, there were 566 cases in New York since the start of the outbreak in October, with 42 hospitalizations and 12 admissions to intensive care units. Most cases were recorded in four postcodes in Brooklyn. City officials issued an emergency ordinance in April requiring anyone living, working or attending a school in these areas of the city to be vaccinated or face a potential $ 1,000 fine. From Monday, the city issued 145 convocations. The meeting did not appear in any of these postal codes.
Bigtree denied having urged New Yorkers to stop vaccinating. "I think it's absurd to say that I've had any effect on this community."
But he also declared his support for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, citing an event in Austin, Texas, where he delivered a speech in which he released a yellow star. "I pinned it to my jacket and said that I supported the orthodox Jewish community of Rockland County."
He also claimed that "consensus thinking" had led to "things like Nazi Germany, when we feel safe because we are in numbers we are doing really atrocious things."
As the sun began to set over Brooklyn, the bouncers led visitors, often wearing Orthodox Jewish clothing, to separate sex entrances. Some participants protected their faces and a woman stuck a garbage bag at the glass doors of the hall to block the cameras.
A white-bearded man, Isaac, who refused to give his family name, said his brother-in-law was the owner of the theater. Isaac said he provided 1,300 chairs for the rally, but more than 30 minutes after the planned start of the rally, perhaps only about a hundred people were sitting down.
Isaac stated that he and his family, who are vaccinated, had been misled by the organizers of the rally. "They said it was education for young people" to protect children from "Internet pornography," Isaac said. "By the time we discovered it last night, it was too late" to cancel the event, he said, because they had accepted a contract and a deposit.
Pro-vaccine protesters and members of the local Jewish community watched from the sidewalk.
"Measles is a disaster. I've seen children die, "said Susan Schulman, a pediatrician who had been working in Brooklyn since 1976 and said she came to dispel the false information that the" bad guys "were spreading at the rally. "I saw children with respirators, and I do not talk about 40 years ago, I'm talking about now."
Schulman said his biggest concern was that parents who listened to anti-vaccine activists like Bigtree refuse not only MMR vaccines, but also other vaccines, such as protections against bacterial meningitis.
"If it becomes a movement in my population, I will not be able to practice medicine anymore," said Schulman. "I'll be up all night, every night, with kids who call with fever."
Ben Rivlin, 30, a caterer from the nearby Midwood neighborhood, stands in front of the women's entrance for the rally and held a sign stating, "Vaccination is important! Stop the propaganda and the lies. . "
"I'm just here to make some noise," said Rivlin. "This is not a representation of the Jewish community."
On Wednesday, the State Secretary for Health and Social Services, Alex, said the number of measles cases in the country was 1,001 on June 5th. This is a worrying trend as nearly one-third of infected children out of 1,000 will die from respiratory and neurological complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total number of cases is 1,001 more than in any year since 1992, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York City and Rockland County, NS, represent 660% of this year's total. Azar cautioned against "worrying signs that there are pockets of under-vaccination in the country".
Municipal officials have sought to combat the spread of misinformation. They launched an advertising campaign on bus shelters, newspapers and online publications and met with rabbinic leaders and community leaders to highlight the importance of getting vaccinated and the dangers of measles. Distributed educational material includes approximately 29,000 English and Yiddish vaccination brochures for the Orthodox community. In late April, health officials organized a conference call to "fight against anti-vaccination propaganda," officials said.
Four women stood with their children on the side of the street in front of the rally. One of them made a move towards the lobby and said, "Because of them, I had to vaccinate my premature baby by 6 months."
An unvaccinated woman dressed in a pink coat and who lives near Coney Island said that she had contracted measles at the age of 25. "My nephew came to my house and drank me in her cup," she said to catch the disease "objective."
Read more:
Anti-vaxxers target communities fighting measles
US officials fighting measles outbreaks threaten to resort to a rare ban on air travel
Unaware that he had measles, a man traveled from N.Y. to Michigan, infecting 39 people
Vaccination Order in New York Highlights Island Jewish Community
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