September 6–12, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
Boro epidemic over
Mayor declares end to Kings County measles outbreak
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the end of the city’s
measles outbreak on Sept. 3, which swept through
Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn for almost
Subway platform stabbing
ADDICTION
Now in Bubblegum Flavor
Big Tobacco is tricking our kids into nicotine addiction,
marketing 15,000 flavors – like bubblegum – to hook
underage users in NYC.
Tell the City Council:
Protect our kids. End the sale
of all flavored tobacco products.
FlavorsHookKidsNYC.org
Infinite Ambition.
Zero Tuition.
We don’t just teach students.
We cultivate scholars.
Enrolling 6th–12th Grade
Scholars
Summit Academy Charter School
Bridging the Gap … Reaching new Heights
Summit Academy Charter School offers scholars a
small, caring school environment that prepares them for
success in college and empowers them to become leaders
in their community and the world.
27 Huntington Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 875-1403 ph (718) 875-1891 fax
www.sacsny.org
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared
Brooklyn’s measles
outbreak over on Tuesday.
Hizzoner declared the
end of the epidemic, which
swept through Orthodox Jewish
communities in Brooklyn
for the better part of a year,
after no new cases were reported
to officials with the
city’s Health Department
since mid-July and after a
multi-million-dollar vaccination
and education drive
by the government and local
religious leaders, according
to de Blasio.
“Ending the measles outbreak
required extensive
collaboration with community
organizations and Jewish
leaders,” de Blasio said on
Sept. 3 in a prepared statement.
“They helped encourage
vaccinations and achieve
record immunization levels in
parts of Brooklyn.”
Health honchos declared
the city’s largest outbreak of
the highly contagious airborne
pathogen in almost three decades
over after no new cases
were reported in 42 days —
twice the time it takes from
the moment someone is exposed
to the virus to when
they exhibit their first symptoms,
according to the Health
Department.
A whopping 654 people
were diagnosed with the disease
since Brooklyn’s patient
zero was identified in October
2018. Of those, 72 percent
of cases were Williamsburg
residents and 80 percent were
MEASLES
IN BROOKLYN
under 18 years old.
Officials traced the borough’s
outbreak to a Brooklyn
resident traveling from Israel
that month and one leader
of an Orthodox Jewish organization
said the community’s
close-knit structure enabled
the illness to spread
rapidly.
“The Orthodox Jewish
community takes health seriously.
While its vaccination
rates have always been
high, international travel and
a close-knit, family-centered
structure left our community
particularly vulnerable to the
measles, a highly contagious
disease,” said Avrohom Weinstock,
the leader of Agudath
Israel of America.
The Department of Health
instituted an exclusion order
in December 2018 barring
unvaccinated children from
attending schools and day
cares in Williamsburg and
Borough Park.
The city shut down several
yeshivas in Williamsburg that
allowed unvaccinated pupils
to attend class, and started issuing
$1,000 fines to parents
who failed to vaccinate their
kids after the mayor declared
a public health emergency in
April 2019.
Health officials administered
15,541 doses of the measles
mumps-rubella vaccine
a year.
Photo by Paul Martinka
in Williamsburg and Borough
Park since the April emergency
order, marking a 41 percent
increase in inoculation
rates year-over-year, according
to the department.
The city lifted the December
2018 exclusion order, but
children across the state must
get vaccinated before they can
return to school this Thursday,
after lawmakers in Albany
passed a package of bills repealing
religious exemptions
for vaccines on June 13.
And while the epidemic is
over, city health officials will
keep monitoring the situation
and advocating for more vaccinations
to stem future outbreaks,
according to the city’s
chief physician.
“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,” said Health Commissioner
Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “Our
best defense against renewed
transmission is having a well
immunized city.”
One city lawmaker also
urged New Yorkers to fight
against junk science by anti
vaxxers.
“Our fight against the science
denial fueling the anti
vaccine movement continues,”
said Councilman
Mark Levine (D–Manhattan),
the chair of the City
Council’s Health Committee.
“Our message is clear:
we implore New Yorkers to
make sure they and their
children are up-to-date on
vaccinations.”
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Police are looking for a man
and a woman who they suspect
of stabbing a guy at the
Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway
station on Aug. 25.
Witnesses told police that
the 41-year-old victim was arguing
with the villains when
the male reprobate pulled out
a knife and stabbed him in the
gut outside the platform area
leading to Bond and Livingston
streets around 5:30 p.m.
The couple bolted and paramedics
brought the victim to
Methodist Hospital in stable
condition, where he has since
been released, cops said.
Police obtained surveillance
footage which shows
the delinquent duo leaving
the station and the man wielding
a blade.
Anyone with information
regarding the identity of
the suspects is asked to call
the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers
Hotline.
These two are suspected
of stabbing a man.
NYPD
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.sacsny.org
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/FlavorsHookKidsNYC.org
/www.sacsny.org