Judge says 40 unvaccinated children can not return to school

Since December 7, students at the Green Meadow Waldorf School, in the suburb of Rockland County, North New York, have had to stay home due to an exclusion order issued by the Rockland County Public Health Department.

Green Meadow is a K-12 school with approximately 300 students enrolled.

Public health officials in Rockland County report a total of 146 cases, including 82% of patients who did not receive the MMR vaccine, for measles, mumps and rubella. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that was largely eliminated in the United States in the early 2000s.

An international traveler reportedly introduced measles into the county last September, leaving unvaccinated people vulnerable to the disease.

More than 20 parents are registered in the prosecution, identified only by their initials.

Children must stay at home

Thomas Humbach, the county attorney, defended the order of exclusion by addressing the media on Tuesday.

"The Supreme Court has stated that public health is a primary goal of the government and that we must remain strong to protect the babies and cripples who would be affected by this disease," he said.

Humbach pointed out that the case was not over and that the county would continue to defend the position of unvaccinated children in the county to stay home after school during the measles outbreak. "With a little luck, the measles outbreak will end before the case," Humbach said.

In a letter to Rockland County School Trustees, Dr. Howard Zucker, Public Health Commissioner of the State of New York, appointed Patricia Ruppert, Rockland County Public Heat Commissioner, as being empowered to order excluded students from clbades they have recently been confirmed measles cases. "Zucker noted that the exclusion order could last 21 days after the last exposure."

Zucker added that "the schools concerned should also take appropriate measures so that unvaccinated students can continue to attend clbades from home".

Ruppert imposed a school exclusion order on unvaccinated children on December 5th. At the time, county officials said that Green Meadow's vaccination rate was only 33%, but that number has since increased to about 56%, according to the Rockland / Westchester Journal News .

Yet this figure is well below the 95% figure that many public health officials have stated is necessary for a community to benefit from immunity against various communicable diseases.

Parents are struggling to take care of children

Michael Sussman, a lawyer representing parents and students forced to stay at home, also spoke to the press following the judge's decision. He described the county's exclusion decision as "too general", arguing that no case of measles had been reported at the school or in the wider Chestnut community Ridge.

Rockland County says measles cases are clustered in the east of Ramapo, a few miles from the Green Meadow Waldorf School. In a notice posted online by Rockland County, officials said that "due to the small size of Rockland County's geographic region, exposure to measles can occur n & # 39; Anywhere in the county ".

But Sussman said that in his view, the law did not allow health officials to exclude children from a school without one case being reported to the school. school.
A woman speaking on behalf of "49 children from one school" said that her child had been out of school for 93 days.

Another parent said that "the stress and burden on the whole family was huge," making it more difficult for parents to earn a living and to look after children who could not go at school during the day. He added that the county was overtaken by its "unprecedented and ambiguously worded" policy, forcing parents to "miss work, hire guardians and live on reduced incomes". He said some students had missed whole seasons of sport.

Major epidemic in the state of Washington

The CDC counted 228 cases of measles in 2019, a number that could well match the number of cases in 2018 of 372 in the United States, making it the second largest in two decades.

This week, 22 of these cases were new.

Epidemics in the suburbs of Brooklyn and New York have focused on practicing Jewish communities and are linked to travelers to Israel. In addition to New York, there is also a major measles outbreak in Washington State, with 75 affected.

Cases have also been reported in New Hampshire, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Oregon, and Texas.