No more religious exemptions
Bills mandate all New York children to get vaccinated before attending school
City closes two more yeshivas
COURIER LIFE, J PS UNE 21–27, 2019 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Albany politicians passed a
package of bills repealing the
religious exemption for vaccines
on June 13, amid a measles
outbreak that has swept
through Brooklyn’s Orthodox
Jewish communities and
infected almost 1,000 people
statewide.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed
the bills from both legislative
chambers into law, which will
require children across the
state to get vaccinated against
a slate of illnesses before they
can attend schools at all levels
from day care to high school,
in order to stem the ongoing
epidemic caused by a spread
of fear-mongering and false information,
according to one of
the legislation’s lead sponsors.
“New York is at the center
of the worst measles outbreak
in over a quarter of a century,”
Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz
(D-Bronx) said in a statement.
“This outbreak has spread
because misinformation and
irresponsible rhetoric has
scared people away from vaccinating
their children. We
need to end the nonmedical
exemptions so preventable diseases
will not spread in New
York again.”
Dinowitz’s bill, A2371 ,
along with its sister bill in
the Senate, S2994 , by Manhattan
lawmaker Brad Hoylman,
passed less than a week ahead
of the end of legislative session
on June 19 and will mandate
that all children in the state
who are medically able have to
get immunized against a host
of illnesses, including measles,
mumps, hepatitis B, and
others.
The new bill will protect
New Yorkers who cannot get
vaccinated for medical reasons
and send a message that
vaccines are safe and effective
in controlling the spread of
contagious diseases, according
to Hoylman.
“Today, the state Senate is
sending a strong message to
New Yorkers that vaccines are
safe and effective,” the pol said
in a statement. “We’re putting
science ahead of misinformation
about vaccines and standing
up for the rights of immunocompromised
children and
adults, pregnant women and
infants who can’t be vaccinated
through no fault of their
own.”
State law previously allowed
parents to opt their kids
out of the mandatory vaccinations
using religious exemptions,
but lawmakers sprang
into action after one of the largest
measles epidemics in the
country swept across the Empire
State beginning last fall.
To date, 924 people statewide
have been infected with
the highly-contagious pathogen,
with 571 of those in Brooklyn,
concentrated primarily in
the borough’s Orthodox Jewish
communities in Williamsburg
and Borough Park, according
to data by the city and
state departments of health.
Just this week , the city shut
down three Williamsburg yeshivas
— one of them a repeat
offender — for admitting unvaccinated
students and staff,
despite an April 9 order by
Health Commissioner Oxiris
Barbot requiring all people
living, working, or going to
school in certain northern
Brooklyn postal codes to get
the measles-mumps-rubella
vaccine or face a $1,000 fi ne.
One legislator criticized
the new law, saying that it violated
the First Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution by limiting
religious freedom.
“I am in favor of, and continue
to advocate for widespread
vaccination. However,
the separation of Church and
State as guaranteed by the
First Amendment is a cornerstone
of our Democracy,”
said state Sen. Simcha Felder,
whose district includes Borough
Park, where city health
offi cials have confi rmed 100
cases of the illness so far.
The legislator added in an
emailed statement to this paper
that the new law marked a
slippery slope, particularly in
times of increased hate crimes
and rising anti-Semitism
across the state.
“Any detraction of religious
liberty by the state sets a dangerous
precedent. Especially
in these times, passing a law
that eliminates free exercise
of religious rights would set
us down a slippery slope. The
state has many tools available
to manage this outbreak that
stop short of tampering with
religious freedom.”
The law previously met
with opposition by a small
group of anti-vaxxers who protested
a rally held by Hoylman
and his colleagues in support
of the bill at City Hall on May
29, with one anti-vaxxer claiming
that the small number of
religious exemptions did not
impact the spread of measles.
“It’s outrageous to try and
take our religious exemptions
away, when we make up less
than half of 1 percent of the unvaccinated
population,” said
Queens resident Adreana Rodriguez
told this paper .
But a similar law which
state legislators passed in California
last year — which the
New York bill was modeled after
— led to an increase in immunization
there and Hoylman
said at the May rally that
anti-vaxxers use the religious
exemption as a loophole, despite
their objections being
rooted in junk science — not
faith.
“The religious exemption is
a loophole,” said the Manhattan
lawmaker. “It is masking
someone’s conspiracy against
vaccinations, and it needs to
be closed.”
One of the main claims by
anti-vaxxers is that vaccines
cause autism, which the Center
of Disease Control has
proven to be untrue.
SHOT DOWN: State politicians repealed the religious exemption to vaccines on June 13, mandating that all
children who are medically able get immunizations for a slate of diseases before they can attend schools.
Getty Images
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city shut down two more
Williamsburg yeshivas for
letting unvaccinated kids
and staff into their schools,
the Department of Health
announced on June 13.
Offi cials closed the UTA
of Williamsburg/Yeshiva
Torah V’Yirah at 590 Bedford
Ave. — for the second
time — for not providing
enough proof of immunity
for a child who was at the
school and for allowing unvaccinated
kids and staff
on site, despite a measles
outbreak that has swept
through Orthodox Jewish
communities in Brooklyn
since last fall.
The Department of
Health also forced the closure
of UTA 212 at 212 Williamsburg
St. for letting in
35 students who were either
unvaccinated or did not
have the required dosage
of the measles-mumps-rubella
vaccine, according to
the department.
The city’s announcement
comes just two days
after it closed the Central
UTA Boys Division at 762
Wythe Ave. and offi cials
have now shut 11 schools
since the April 9 order by
the commissioner for all
residents and people who
work or go to school in certain
Williamsburg postal
codes to get vaccinated
against the highly contagious
malady.
Both learning facilities
will have to provide documentation
that all students
and staff are vaccinated or
have immunity before they
can reopen and the department’s
chief said that these
closures send a message
that the city won’t stop until
all schools comply.
“The spread of measles
may be slowing down but
we are not,” said Health
Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.
“This is a message to
all schools that have been
ordered to exclude unvaccinated
children — we will
not stop our enforcement
until the outbreak comes to
an end. School staff must
do their part to help us end
this outbreak and keep New
Yorkers safe.”