Antivax parents plead in favor of a mandatory vaccination order in New York (in case of major outbreak of measles)



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The MMR vaccine, stored at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, New York, on March 27, 2019.
Photo: Seth Wenig (AP)

A group of five unidentified mothers sued New York City, trying to block a mandatory vaccination order against measles, mumps and rubella ordered earlier this month in Brooklyn-specific postcodes. in the middle of a major measles epidemic.

The city's health department said it would enforce the order by checking vaccination records and looking for people who have been in contact with infected people. Those who have not received the MMR vaccine or who can not provide any proof of immunity could be fined $ 1,000 if they refuse to be vaccinated. According to ABC News, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to prevent this from alleging that "there is not enough evidence of a measles outbreak or dangerous outbreak" to justify it. prescription (despite at least 285 cases reported in the city this year). "Arbitrary and capricious."

Lawyer Robert Krakow, who represents the plaintiffs, told The New York Law Journal that one of the families involved had been forced to innoculate their two children rather than being fined.

"It's stress, and that's equivalent to strength," Krakow said. "The city should not do that."

According to Ars Technica, the lawsuit also cites many times denied and totally unfounded stories that the MMR vaccine is dangerous. The movement of people who believe in such claims, commonly known as antivaxxers, is usually a scientifically unfounded parrot according to which vaccines can have any impact, from autism to invented nonsense, such as an "overload of vaccines ". a supposed phenomenon where the antivaxxeurs deliberately expose children to the measles virus so that they can protect themselves. (Snopes found little evidence that it was an actual trend, but proponents such as Kentucky's governor, Matt Bevin, exist.)

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control reports that the MMR vaccine is 97% effective with the two recommended doses and that the vaccine injection usually presents only a risk of serious adverse effects in severely immunocompromised individuals. or two people per million declared allergic to it. It also prevents measles, which, according to the CDC in 2014, would have caused 21 million additional visits to the hospital and 732,000 deaths of children born in the last 20 years without the success of the Vaccines program. Children launched in 1994. (Measles is absolutely not something to be taken lightly and can lead to opportunistic infections or serious neurological problems like encephalitis.)

The World Health Organization has declared that the antivirus movement was a threat to public health in the world. Anti -axilators are largely responsible for the resurgence of measles. Ars Technica reported that 555 cases had been recorded in 20 states in 2019, on track to exceed the 2014 balance sheet of 667.

The lawsuit also alleges that the order violates freedom of religion. There are indeed exemptions from compulsory religious immunization in 47 states, including New York. But the New York Times noted that city and state health commissioners typically had vast powers dating back to the nineteenth century (the late New York health commissioner, Dr. Cyrus Edson, had stated he did not want to). There is "virtually no canonical basis for avoiding vaccines among the major religions of the world".

In any event, while the epidemic was likely to be from the orthodox Jewish community in New York, the vast majority of rabbis and others are very pro-vaccinist, with The Times and BuzzFeed News partly pointing to a dedicated anti-rollers. supported by national anti-tax organizations targeting ultra-Orthodox Jews with leaflets and textbooks. (A Politico report cited Williamsburg's 5% religious exemption rate, which is obviously very bad, but far from the country's highest exemption rate.) The Times reported separately that one of Stronger reluctance against antivaxxers came from Jewish groups working closely with health officials.

"The publicity we have – the rabbinical and lay leaders – telling people that you have to do it, that you have to vaccinate under Jewish law – that will have the effect of bringing down these last few things," organizations said. United Jews David Niederman, president of Williamsburg, told Politico.

"This epidemic is fueled by a small group of anti-vaxxeurs in these neighborhoods," wrote in a statement the Department of Health and Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot. "They spread false dangerous information based on false scientific data."

As Ars Technica noted, the anti-draggers have filed lawsuits in response to other emergency measures. After a separate group of parents in Rockland County, New York, which faces a measles outbreak of nearly 200 people, has been successful in banning children from banning unvaccinated children in public spaces, health officials have simply issued a new series of ordinances prohibiting anyone sick with measles from indoor and outdoor public meeting places.

In a statement to the Law Journal, city legal department spokesman Nick Paolucci said, "The United States Supreme Court upheld the right of states and localities to demand vaccines to stop epidemics. We are at the heart of a preventable epidemic. Our attempts at education and persuasion have failed to stop the spread of measles. We had to take this additional step to fulfill our obligation to ensure that individuals do not continue to put the health of others at risk. "

[ABC News/Ars Technica]

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