Measles outbreak in New York: Judge maintains ban on unvaccinated students going to school

While the state of New York was facing one of the most serious measles epidemics in decades, public health officials in a suburb have made the extraordinary decision of the state of New York. prohibit unvaccinated students from attending school, whether or not they have benefited from a religious or medical exemption from the vaccine.

Parents of 42 children affected by the school's ban, the Green Meadow Waldorf School, sued the Rockland County Health Department, asking a federal judge to issue an injunction authorizing the return of the children. children.

On Tuesday, the request was refused.

At a hearing before the US District Court of White Plains, Judge Vincent Bricetti stated that the parents had not proved "that the public interest weighs in favor of an injunction ", according to the newspaper. The news newspaper.

"Although no one appreciates the fact that these kids left school, these orders worked," county attorney Thomas E. Humbach said in a statement. "They helped prevent the measles outbreak from spreading to this school population."

The decision added to growing public resistance against people who do not vaccinate their children. Last week, an Ohio teenager who had been vaccinated against his family's wishes had testified before Congress that he believed his mother was plagued by widely-denied conspiracy theories about the dangers of vaccination.

A few days later, lawmakers in New York proposed a bill allowing teenagers to be vaccinated without the consent of their parents. On Monday, local chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics expressed their support for legislation.

Until now, no confirmed case of measles has been reported at Green Meadow, a private school with programs for infancy and kindergarten to Grade 12 which, like Other Waldorf schools, follow a philosophy of teaching focused on non-denominational spiritual development.

But Rockland County is the epicenter of the measles epidemic in New York, with 146 confirmed cases since October, the vast majority of them under 18 years old. Many cases have involved members of Orthodox Jewish communities where vaccination rates tend to be below average, public health officials said.

According to Michael Sussman, a parent lawyer who sued the Rockland Health Department, all the children at the center of the trial had received religiously based immunization exemptions. But neither they nor their parents are orthodox Jews, he said.

The so-called "exclusion orders" from Rockland County were first introduced in December to county authorities to ban unvaccinated children from schools, said a county spokesman. Under orders, unvaccinated children were not allowed to attend targeted schools until the vaccination rate had reached 95%.

Even when schools did not have confirmed measles cases, such as at Green Meadow, officials still feared that unvaccinated children would be exposed to measles in other public places, such as shopping malls, and that they then spread the disease in their schools, said Ed Day. , the executive of Rockland County.

At one point, 60 schools, many in ultra-Orthodox communities, and 6,000 students were affected by orders, officials said. About half of the schools have reached the required vaccination rate, county officials said.

The court complaint indicated that Rockland County officials had violated children's constitutional rights by forcing them to stay at home. The order also "significantly disrupted" the education of children, said the complaint.

Vicki Larson, a spokesperson for Green Meadow, said the school had no official position on vaccination, but that she complied with New State law. York, which allows religious exemptions for vaccination and vaccination.

But she said the school followed the county's exclusion decision and was working with the Rockland County Health Department. To return to school, students will have to prove that they are immunized against measles or that they have received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, she said.

"We are ready to welcome our excluded students as soon as this is legally possible," said Larson.

The New York Times

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