NYS Measles Outbreak Persists
Local Areas Remain Untouched While Rockland Struggles to Contain Virus
A resurgence of the once antiquated measles virus has triggered a state of emergency in both New York City and Rockland County. But despite its close proximity to the affected locations, Dutchess County has remained reportedly immune.
“Dutchess County has not had a recent measles case to date,” representatives of Dr. A.K. Vaidian, Dutchess Health commissioner, wrote in an email.
Flagship school districts in the area, including Arlington, Beacon, and Hyde Park, have reported measles vaccination rates of 98–100 percent — well over the 95 percent threshold necessary to maintain immunity.
Nonetheless, Dutchess County Department of Health has taken proactive steps to ensure that the area remains sheltered from the outbreak.
“We recommend residents learn more about their own measles vaccine status given recent outbreaks in neighboring counties,” Department representatives wrote. “Dutchess County has shared this recommendation along with additional healthcare guidance with schools, healthcare providers, day cares, and camps.”
Educators in the area heeded the Health department’s advice and took measures to protect local students from exposure to the virus.
Earlier this month, Wappingers and Arlington districts limited access to public spaces for unvaccinated student athletes when competing against Rockland County schools. Superintendent offices in both districts distributed letters to parents and guardians of student athletes stating that any unvaccinated child competing against a Rockland team was permitted to participant in the athletic contest, provided the game was outside. But according to the Poughkeepsie Journal, unvaccinated athletes were not allowed to enter the school, gymnasium, or “other places of indoor assembly in Rockland.”
Since the virus’s return in October 2018, Rockland has been an epicenter of the measles outbreak. Currently, the county is grappling with 202 confirmed cases, with 55 of these cases occurring within the last month. On March 26, Rockland County Executive Ed Day took the unprecedented measure of declaring a state of emergency. He implemented the Measles Outbreak Emergency Directive which banned unvaccinated minors from entering public spaces of assembly (including schools) for 30 days.
The directive was temporarily blocked by a local judge on the basis of executive overreach, but Day followed up last week with a renewed declaration of emergency. This “Exposure Exclusion Order”, which Day announced to the public on April 26, targeted only individuals confirmed to have had measles, as well as unvaccinated individuals that have been exposed to the virus.
“The new state of emergency doesn’t contain any specific orders,” said John Lyon, director of Strategic Communications for Rockland County Executive Office. “Our director of Health is specifically focusing on [people] confirmed with measles or those who have been exposed to measles. We are sending them letters.”
These letters, according to Lyon, indicate that individuals infected by measles are excluded from public places for 21 days. They are required to cooperate by providing information regarding details of their illness, exposure, and contacts. The order imposes a $2000 fine for violation per day, though Lyon said that no individuals have yet faced this consequence. As of Friday, five letters had been distributed.
Furthermore, in working with the Department of Health, the county executive office can target unvaccinated individuals who have been exposed to a measles victim within four days before and after the rash appeared. These exposed, unvaccinated residents will also be targeted by the order.
Though the first declaration of emergency failed to hold up in the court of law, Lyon believes that the renewed order is permissible.
“We do think this declaration will pass. We think the problem with the last one was that it was too broad,” he said. “Courts seem to be holding us to this standard where unless there’s a death, we can’t call this a state of emergency. We think that’s backwards.”
Rockland’s outbreaks are largely concentrated in the county’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, where vaccination rates remain low.
“With the Orthodox Jewish community, there’s already a hesitancy in some ways in terms of what the government is doing. Thankfully in our case we’ve seen such a high rate of support from the Orthodox Jewish leaders,” Lyon said, referring to the continued efforts of county rabbi to encourage vaccinations within their communities.
In its ongoing campaign to quell the outbreak, Executive Ed Day is calling upon state and federal legislatures to take action. On Monday, he appeared at the state Capitol to advocate a measure that would end religious exemptions to required vaccinations.
Though he claimed in Friday’s press conference that “there is no religious exemption that is proven or true within the Jewish community,” exemption rates remain high, particularly in the county’s many private schools. Day even went so far as to call on President Trump to issue an executive order.
“I would recommend an executive order from the President. We need to have immediate access,” Day said.
While low vaccination rates have a statistically higher frequency among Jewish communities, Lyon said that the outbreak transcends religion and is ravaging the nation at large.
“Despite herculean efforts from the director of public health, measles is still spreading,” Lyon said. “Something more needs to be done.”
