Whether to vaccinate children or not has been a hot topic in recent years.
Parents have debated whether doing so would cause harm to their children.
The debate rages on as one of the most densely populated cities in the United States recently experienced a measles outbreak.
New York City began seeing a spike in measles cases last year in October. This year the state has witnessed the highest number of measle cases in the country.
Since then, more than 600 confirmed cases of the measles were reported.
Fortunately, earlier this month, the measles were once again, declared eradicated in the state.
But the outbreak raised many concerns and forced lawmakers to act. The state passed a law that requires every child attending school to be vaccinated.
The law states that children must begin their vaccinations within the first two weeks of school and they must be completed by the end of the school year.
That means that around 26,000 children who were once exempted from receiving vaccinations due to religious reasons, will have to be given shots.
If the parents of these children refuse to do so, they will either have to homeschool their children or leave the state altogether.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said:
“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.”
The majority of the children not vaccinated are from Orthodox Jewish communities whose parents refuse to vaccinate them.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, shared her frustrations.
“It certainly is incredibly frustrating and upsetting to the public health community that we may lose measles elimination status, because we do have a safe and effective vaccine.”
Although 31 states have reported cases of the measles, 75% of those cases were linked to outbreaks in New York City and the state itself.
The law requiring all children to be vaccinated was passed in June of this year. New York is one of five states to exterminate all nonmedical exemptions to vaccination.
Other states include California, Mississippi, Maine, and West Virginia.
This, of course, was bound to receive some pushback.
Jacquelynn Vance-Pauls, a real-estate lawyer in upstate New York, believes that vaccinating her 14-year-old son led to his autism.
Though research debunks the myth that vaccinations are linked to autism, she and several others, believe vaccinations do more harm than good.
Pauls has 9-year-old twins who, according to the new law, must be vaccinated to attend school.
Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo stated:
“The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe. This administration has taken aggressive action to contain the measles outbreak, but given its scale, additional steps are needed to end this public health crisis.”
The United States has been measles-free for nearly 20 years due to vaccinations that help to reduce and even eliminate infections and diseases.
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