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An invisible threat casts a cloud over the Hbadidic Jewish neighborhood in East Williamsburg: a measles epidemic declared by the New York City authorities as a public health emergency.
With a pink turban wrapped around her hair and a dark coat over her, a pregnant mother in her twenties attended with her sons in front of a convenience store. Her children are vaccinated, she said, but she knows people who are worried because their children can not get vaccinated. "One of them has a heart transplant baby and she does not let them get vaccinated," she said.
After "anti-vaxxers" spread misinformation about the supposed dangers of the vaccines, dozens of boys wearing kippas rush to the yellow buses in this section of Brooklyn may, according to municipal authorities, become seriously ill and very contagious.
The majority of the community gets vaccinated – the rabbis point out that there is no religious reason against that. But claims that vaccines are not kosher or cause autism have been disseminated in leaflets and on emergency telephone lines. So far this year, there have been 285 cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens and another 180 in Rockland County, a suburb of New York.
After failing to fight against false information, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken a more radical step this week. In an attempt to control the crisis before the start of Pbadover next week, Mr. de Blasio went to Williamsburg to announce that parents in the area would be fined $ 1,000. They did not vaccinate their children.
Measles was eliminated in the United States in 2000, all new infections coming from abroad. But the disease is now back as vaccination rates drop in some communities, from orthodox Jews to hippies on the west coast, causing the second largest epidemic since 2000.
So far this year, there have been 465 cases in 19 states, including major outbreaks in the state of Washington, California, and Michigan, according to the US Centers for Control and Disease Control. disease prevention.
"We have eliminated the memory of measles. We did not remember how measles could make you sick or occasionally, how a dead measles could make you, "said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The spread of infectious diseases is a manifestation of how rumors become viral in a world of truth. The false news finds fertile ground in the many communities that mistrust the government, be it in Williamsburg mailboxes or on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, both of which are committed to fighting anti-misinformation. -vaccinale.
"It's easier to appeal to people's sense of conspiracy than before," said Dr. Offit. "On the left, it's a bit 'all that's natural, I do not want to inject unnatural product.' . . on the right, it is titled "Take the government off my back, do not tell me what to do".
Highlighting this point, a 60-year-old hospital employee in East Williamsburg said that while he believed in vaccination, he felt the fines were "ridiculous" and that parents should have the right to choose.
"Some people do not want to be vaccinated, it should not affect the rest of the world," he said. "I am happy that young Jewish mothers have the strength to stand up to the government."
Yvonne Maldonado, head of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford University, said measles was a "fairly serious illness." Children who contract it catch a high fever, feel pain when they see the light and may have "very serious" respiratory symptoms. In some cases, this can lead to a brain infection and studies have shown that the patient's immune system suffered up to two years after its cure.
When collective immunity against vaccines falls below a certain threshold, measles will likely be the first condition to make a comeback because it is so contagious. Each infected person can spread the disease to an average of 12 to 18 people, against five and seven people with the flu, she said.
"You can look at the canary in the coal mine, if you will," she said.
Mr. de Blasio's fines should be the subject of a lawsuit filed by human rights lawyer Michael Sussman, the same lawyer who convinced a court to block Rockland County's attempt to control measles by prohibiting unvaccinated persons from leaving public places.
Although vaccinations are rare in the United States, with the exception of entry into public schools, fines receive legal backing from the Supreme Court. More than 100 years ago, the highest US court ruled that it was legal to prescribe vaccines if citizens were punished for refusing to be vaccinated rather than for demanding forced vaccines.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, said he was in favor of the public health emergency, which he said would impose an "extremely low risk" on the unvaccinated person. "Parents can not claim to have autonomy, the right to bring up their children when they could harm their child or other children," he said.
advisable
However, he believes that Mr. de Blasio should have imposed fines throughout New York State, not just some postal codes, which could give him the opportunity to be accused of discrimination. After all, measles can travel on the subway, he added.
Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of United Jewish Organizations in Williamsburg, said he was concerned about a possible rise in anti-Semitism because of reports of the epidemic. The social service organization has been trying to combat the misrepresentation of vaccines since before the outbreak and has actually made sure that thousands more people are vaccinated last year, did -he declares.
He congratulated Mr. de Blasio for coming to Williamsburg to talk about measles.
"The message is clear and clear from rabbinical leaders and lay leaders," he said. "Some are frightened by the false news, which is unfortunate. This anti-vaxxer movement is so powerful all over the world. We are not immune to that. "
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