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The County of Rockland County, NY, devastated by measles, today passed the extraordinary step of banning unvaccinated minors from gaining access to public places. If vaccine-preventable diseases continue to develop in pockets of unvaccinated people across the country, these types of bans could become the new norm.
The ban is part of the county's efforts to curb the spread of measles, which has already infected 153 people – mostly unvaccinated children under 18 years of age. International visitors reported the virus to Rockland from September 2018, and this virus has spread. Since the beginning of the Rockland epidemic, nearly 17,000 people in the county have been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, and unvaccinated children have been banned in local schools, according to a statement from Department of Health of the State of New York.
Progress in fighting the spread of measles, however, has stagnated, according to a press briefing held today in Rockland County. "As the epidemic continued, our inspectors began to meet growing resistance from those they were trying to protect," said county director Ed Day at the briefing. Now the county is taking the most radical step in declaring the state of emergency that will ban unvaccinated children from all public places starting midnight tonight.
The ban is lifted within 30 days or, for unvaccinated children, it is lifted as early as their first measles vaccine. Children who can not being vaccinated for medical reasons are totally excluded from the ban. Officials will not require teenagers to submit their medical information, according to Rockland spokesman John Lyon. "We are not going to ask for vaccination registration on the street," Lyon said The edge. Instead, the plan is to enforce the ban afterwards, said Lyon. If an epidemiological inquiry reveals the presence of an unvaccinated minor in a shopping center, for example, the parents of that child could be charged with a crime and face a fine of USD 500 or a 90-day prison sentence, said M Lyon.
In prison, that's not the goal, says Day: "It's not something we're trying to do." The goal is to raise awareness of the importance of vaccines in a country where measles spread for six months. especially among Orthodox Jewish communities. "We do it in a way that simply gets attention at this point so that people understand the seriousness of what they do – and do not do it," he says.
Rockland County officials said the ban could make people with measles reluctant to seek medical care, Lyon said. But they need people to work with doctors while the county is trying to identify people who may have been exposed to measles. They hope that the threat of consequences will encourage parents to vaccinate their children or, at least, to get people to cooperate with public health investigators. It indicates an infected person who exposed people to a target and who then stopped helping the investigators to clarify when the exhibition could have happened. "We are already seeing this frightening factor of people who do not cooperate with us," said Lyon. "So, from our point of view, this gives us more tools to get them to cooperate with our investigators."
To counteract the spread of this dangerous virus, the drastic measures we see more often in Rockland may require the application of vaccine expert Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. In another outbreak, officials said today that at least 18 people had been infected with measles in Oakland County, Michigan, WXYZ Detroit reported. . "Extraordinary measures could be taken to stem the increase in the number of cases we have encountered," says Hotez. "Otherwise, they will not get hugged. This will only continue to infect a large number of people. "
Limiting movement can help prevent the spread of disease in an emergency, according to Leila Barraza, an assistant professor at the Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. Quarantine laws can force exposed people to stay at home. Isolation laws can force patients to remain isolated in places such as hospitals, for example. And other laws of social distancing can also prevent people from congregating in places such as schools, workplaces or public events. "It's a way of creating a distance between people so they can not spread the disease," says Barraza.
These laws have been respected on a smaller scale in other cases. When Rockland County banned unvaccinated students from schools where less than 95 percent of students were vaccinated, a group of parents sued the county's health department. But earlier in March, a federal judge ruled that the school ban could remain in effect. "It's really about protecting those people. Because if you are not vaccinated against measles, you have a high risk of getting measles if you are exposed to it, "says Barraza.
Countries like France and Italy have also instituted school bans. But Rockland New The ban is different, says Barraza. "This is a new, broader measure than simply excluding students from unvaccinated schools," she says. "I think that's why it's so much publicity." And she could see that this would be the first of similar bans to come. "I think this could definitely be a new trend as we have more unvaccinated children," she says. "If the evidence shows that it worked, then I think it will probably be retried."
Oscar Alleyne, director of programs and services for national associations of county and city health officials, hopes that the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases will not happen at this stage. "I hope that this is not the new normal, because we know that we have a tool and a technique that can work, that worked and that helped save Lives." He talks about vaccines This tool is a consequence of the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation. "It's the new normal in America now that measles seems to be coming back," says Hotez. "It's a self-inflicted injury."
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