By Meagan King
Religious beliefs coupled with theories that vaccinations lead to Autism have curtailed rates of vaccination across the country leading to a spike in the number of people infected with previously controlled diseases. Specifically, there have been over 550 confirmed cases of the measles just this year resulting in the second largest outbreak in over two decades. In Rockland County, New York there have been one hundred and eighty-six newly reported cases. Concerns about the long-term health effects of measles including its highly contagious properties, which can lead to complications and death, has led New York Officials to implement new regulations regarding unvaccinated individuals.
In March 2019, the county declared a state of emergency and promptly announced that all unvaccinated minors would not be permitted to enter any enclosed public places including churches, schools and shopping centers. Officials mandated that the ban would stay in effect for at least thirty days or until unvaccinated minors received the vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). A violation of the ban would result in a misdemeanor of a fine of five hundred dollars or up to six months in jail, although sources report that the county officials were not intending to be aggressive in its enforcement. Parents in the county filed a law suit claiming that the action the county took was beyond their legal authority and deprived children of their right to education. A state judge blocked the enforcement of the ban indicating that there were not enough cases of measles to justifying declaring an emergency.
Since the block of the ban has been in effect there have been thirty-three new cases of the measles reported. Rockland County has appealed the decision to block the ban, and has now gone ahead and issued another order barring anyone diagnosed with the measles from all places of public assembly, including schools, restaurants, and places of worship. Despite the first ban being blocked by a state judge, towns and health officials are mandating measles vaccinations for all children. In conjunction with Rockland County, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio declared a state emergency and mandated that all children must be vaccinated from the measles in areas of Brooklyn, New York within forty-eight hours and only provides exemptions for those with medical conditions. New York has been hit the hardest of all states with 285 cases as of April 8th, 2019. The most recent ban is as follows:
“ On April 16, 2019, New York City announced that
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- Any person diagnosed with the measles or exposed to a person diagnosed with the measles as evidenced by laboratory evidence or a measles tracing investigation conducted by RCDOH must be excluded from indoor and outdoor places of public assembly located in Rockland County for a period of up to 21 days.
- The individual is prohibited from going to or being present at any place of public assembly for any period of time with exceptions for medical care, emergency situations and court appointments.
- Individuals are required to cooperate with RCDOH public health authorities by providing information regarding details of one’s illness, exposures and contacts.
Failure to comply result in 2,000 fine per day and parents are responsible for the compliance for their minor children.”
Measles is so difficult to control due to its incredibly contagious properties. People can be contagious for up to four days before any symptoms appear and can easily be transmitted in public places. One of the qualities of the measles that makes it particularly difficult to contain is that the virus is able to remain in the air for up to two hours without a host. With the increase of communities in the United States not vaccinating their children, measles will continue to spread. In order to prevent spread of the disease approximately ninety-two to ninety-five percent of the population must be immune. This is proving difficult in places with strong religious beliefs as well as in areas of the country where there is a strong belief that there is a link between Autism and vaccinations.
States and counties continue to try to find a way to implement a policy that will help protect their community while those with compromised immune systems are being hit the hardest. Several medical conditions, including individuals going through chemotherapy, are at an increased risk to contract the measles virus and when they are exposed there is a high risk of complications. The Center for Disease Control believes that the majority of the measles cases in the United States have come from a few carriers that contracted it while abroad. Health officials in the United States have been investigating the outbreaks and tracking the measles activity in order to curtail further spreading of the disease. In addition, the health officials have begun vaccinating and quarantining susceptible individuals and issuing exposure warnings in order to get the outbreak of the measles under control.
Parents of children who have been excluded from schools and other public places have looked at this situation from another angle. The parents, specifically in the Brooklyn, New York case, have argued that this this a violation of their religious beliefs. In the brief filed for the parents, the attorney argued “Parents, whose religious belief are being disregarded, risk becoming criminals if they simply do nothing.” This has been an ongoing battle between the parents and the county officials between the right to raise children as the parent sees fit, and a health emergency that has emerged from failure to vaccinate. The current law in New York would allow officials to quarantine and isolate those who have the measles, and the parents are urging that this is the course of action the city should be taking instead of taking on civil and criminal liability for a failure to vaccinate.
This has been an ongoing debate throughout the country that has caused tension over the past several years. The right to raise children the way the parent sees fit has been a fundamental right since the beginning of our country, but there seems to be a movement against this in situations of public health emergencies.
Meagan King is a 2L staff member on the Journal of Health and Biomedical Law. She has interests in the areas of Family and Health Law. As a staff member, she is writing a case comment concerning the psychotherapist-patient privilege in divorce and custody cases.
Sources
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/04-15-19-CF-et-al-v-CF-et-al-AFFIRMATION_2.pdf
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHBL or Suffolk University Law School.