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New York Suburb Declares Measles Emergency, Barring Unvaccinated Children From Public [1]
['Michael Gold', 'Tyler Pager']
Date: 2019-03-26
[Here’s what you need to know about the disease and the risk of getting it.]
Rockland County, with a population of more than 300,000, has had 153 confirmed cases of measles since October. Of those, 48 have occurred in 2019.
Because of the scope of the outbreak and its persistence, some public health experts said they thought the county’s action made sense.
“I think this is a measure that would highlight the stakes of measles and that would put a stop to these outbreaks,” Jason L. Schwartz, a professor of health policy and the history of medicine at the Yale School of Public Health, said.
While Rockland County’s health department has made strides in increasing the vaccination rate, so far, only 72.9 percent of people in the county between the ages of 1 and 18 are vaccinated, Mr. Day said.
As county officials tried to trace the outbreak, they were dismissed by some members of the community who refused to answer questions and even hung up the phone, Mr. Day said.
Mr. Day cited this behavior, which he called shockingly irresponsible, as justification for his order.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/nyregion/measles-outbreak-rockland-county.html?searchResultPosition=1
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