NYC Mandates Vaccines in Measles Outbreak, Threatening Fines

(Bloomberg) -- A measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has prompted New York City to declare a public health emergency, requiring residents to be vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or face a $1,000 fine.

The highly contagious and potentially deadly virus has afflicted 285 New Yorkers since October, including 246 children, almost all of them in the tightly knit Orthodox Jewish community, in one of the city’s most dense neighborhoods. Twenty-one have been hospitalized, with five requiring intensive care, said city Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.

Health department workers will check vaccination records of people who may have been in contact with infected patients, and those who haven’t received the vaccine or don’t have evidence of immunity will be given an opportunity to get vaccinated before being hit with a violation, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. City health clinics will provide free vaccinations, he said.

“The outbreak could especially spread because soon it will be Passover and families will be together,” de Blasio said. “So we are taking urgent steps right now to make sure we can stop this. It’s not our goal to issue a violation. Whenever people comply promptly, we will not levy fines.”

Barbot said she was particularly concerned about “measles parties,” in which parents encourage children to play with others who have contracted the virus, a practice she said was dangerous.

“They have been spreading dangerous misinformation based on fake science,” Barbot said. “I understand that parents may be afraid of having their children vaccinated. The vaccine has been proven to be safe and effective against measles since the 1960s.”

The public-health emergency declaration followed the city Health Department last week reinforcing an order it issued in December. That original order warned all yeshivas and day-care programs in Williamsburg that they would face violations and possible closure if they failed to exclude unvaccinated students. Nothing in Talmudic law prohibits vaccination, Barbot said.

Officials say they have been alarmed by the disease’s rapid spread. In 2017, the city had two reported cases. A year later the total jumped to 56, and since January the city has recorded 229.

“It’s a very localized problem,” de Blasio said, adding that the Health Department would send “disease detectives” into the Williamsburg neighborhood to trace contacts that individuals may have had with infected patients. “We need to reach out to every family here.”

All 50 states require children to be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis; polio; measles and rubella. Forty-nine states plus Washington D.C. also require mumps and chickenpox vaccinations, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-three states and Washington D.C. also require hepatitis B vaccinations. Some states have imposed fines on violators, and New York’s public-health laws empower the health department to issue such penalties in a public-health emergency.

Measles is highly contagious and can cause severe complications such as pneumonia, encephalitis and even death, according to the city Health Department. It’s preventable with the MMR vaccine. Newborns, pregnant individuals and those with weakened immune systems cannot get vaccinated. So it’s important that everyone around them be vaccinated in order to protect the vulnerable from contracting the virus and prevent severe complications in susceptible populations, according to a health department advisory.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, William Selway

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.