The New York City public health crisis involving over 600 cases of measles is officially over, according to Mayor Bill De Blasio. This officially marks the ending of the largest measles outbreak the city has seen in almost thirty years. No new cases associated with the outbreak have occurred since Mid-July, and while the New York Department of Health does predict more cases to appear, they won’t be associated with this massive outbreak, and will most likely be isolated incidents.
“Ending the measles outbreak required extensive collaboration with community organizations and Jewish leaders. They helped encourage vaccinations and achieve record immunization levels in parts of Brooklyn. As we head back to school this week, we just remain vigilant. To keep our children and communities safe, I urge all New Yorkers to get vaccinated. It’s the best defense we have,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a written statement on Tuesday.
A major contributor to this eradication is the new law that New York has enforced state-wide for this upcoming school year which requires every student to be fully vaccinated unless they have a legitimate medical excuse, religious excuses are no longer accepted. According to the New York State Health Department, before this decision was finalized, there were around 26,000 unvaccinated children within the states public and private school systems all exempt due to their families religious beliefs. Once this measles outbreak began in the city, and continued to appear all throughout the state, lawmakers knew they had to take serious action, hence declaring a city-wide public health emergency.
Since the declaration, New York City has put almost $6 million and hired over 500 staff members specifically for controlling and minimizing the outbreak. The money and staff members all we’re used to host multiple community vaccination events, and spread awareness. Citizens living in certain zip codes were required to get vaccinated (if they weren’t already) based on the amount of cases in that particular area, the threat of a $1,000 fine was enforced as well to ensure that everyone actually followed through.
The effort was met with great success, as over 15,000 measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations have been administered in NYC since April! While the effort has been met with success, and we can officially say we’re out of the public health emergency, experts say we’re not fully in the clear and need to be aware and on top of our health/immunizations.
“Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on the face of the earth, there may no longer be local transmission of measles in New York City, but the threat remains given other outbreaks in the U.S. and around the world. Our best defense against renewed transmission is having a well immunized city,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a new statement to CNN.
While the actual outbreak is over, there are still cases of measles circulating all throughout the state, and other parts of the United States as well. There have been cases of outbreaks in 30 states this past year alone, and while all of them haven’t been as severe as the one in New York City, they were all just as easily preventable. At the rate the country is going now, the US should expect to lose it’s official measles-elimination status, which can be taken away after continuous cases of outbreaks occur for more than a year. The first outbreak occurred September 30th 2018, so time is limited.
California, Mississippi, and West Virginia all have also made adjustments to their laws in regard to student vaccinations, however, many households are choosing to remain unvaccinated and are just homeschooling instead, or even moving out of state! These specific cases are only further contributing to the growing epidemic of the return of preventable diseases. The outbreaks are slowing, but not fast enough, especially for a country that was declared fully eradicated of measles 20 years ago. Further efforts and laws are being created in attempt to continue to vaccinate those without their immunizations. California, for example, is already making adjustments on their new student vaccine laws in order to require any individual working with the homeschooling loophole to also get vaccinated in the name of public safety.
When these diseases are brought back into public spaces through carriers who are unvaccinated, they can develop, change and spread, even to individuals who have their immunizations. Just two years ago the college campus of SUNY New Paltz, located an hour or two north of NYC, experienced an outbreak of mumps (around 70 among the student population). The worst part was students who were already vaccinated got infected due to the fact that the disease was able to develop genetically to overpower the immunizations. So when a child who doesn’t have their immunizations is exposed and exposes those who have received their shots, there’s still not a 100% guarantee that it won’t continue to spread.
Lawmakers main focus is to continue to educate and spread the correct information about these vaccines, and emphasize the danger that unvaccinated individuals put the entire population in.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
