With measles outbreaks in area’s that house religious Jewish communities continuing…
The state removes the religious exemption….
All states have laws requiring various vaccines for students and all allow for medical exemptions. Many also grant parents the right to exempt their children from the vaccines for religious reasons, and a smaller number for philosophical reasons.
But the tide of public opinion has been changing as measles cases this year have already surged to the highest levels since 1992.
More than 1,000 cases of measles in at least 13 outbreaks have been diagnosed in the country this year, with the majority in New York.
The cases have largely stemmed from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population in Brooklyn, and to a lesser extent, Rockland County, which anti-vaccine groups have had some success at targeting with misinformation. Many of these activists claim that vaccines cause autism, a link disproved repeatedly by scientists and medical experts.
Measles, a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening disease, was thought to have been eliminated in 2000, due to the success of decades-long campaigns to get people vaccinated.
[U.S. officials say measles cases hit 25-year record high]
Of New York’s measles cases, 74 percent have come from the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, home to a large ultra-Orthodox population…..