They tried education and outreach, working with rabbis and distributing thousands of flyers to encourage parents to vaccinate their children. They also tried harsher measures, like a ban on unvaccinated students from going to school.
But with measles cases still on the rise and an anti-vaccination movement spreading, city health officials Tuesday took a more drastic step to stem one of the largest measles outbreaks in decades.
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency that would require unvaccinated individuals living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to receive the measles vaccine. The mayor said the city would issue violations and possibly fines of $1,000 for those who did not comply.
“This is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that is very, very troubling and must be dealt with immediately,” de Blasio said at a news conference in Williamsburg, adding: “The measles vaccine works. It is safe, it is effective, it is time-tested.”
The measure follows a spike in measles infections in New York City, where there have been 285 confirmed cases since the outbreak began in the fall; 21 of those cases led to hospitalizations, including five admissions to the intensive care unit.
Just outside the public library where de Blasio held his news conference, some Hasidic mothers raised concerns about the emergency declaration.
“I don’t think it’s up to the city to mandate anything. We all have constitutional rights,” said a woman who only identified herself by Gitty. She refused to give her last name for fear of being harassed for her rejection of vaccinations.
She said she had five children and that none had been or would be vaccinated, an action she called “a medical procedure by force.”
“We are marginalized,” she said. “Every minority that has a different opinion is marginalized.”
Health officials, noting that Passover will begin next week, were concerned that if children remained unvaccinated, measles could spread at family gatherings here or abroad.
“The outbreak could in fact especially spread because soon it will be Pesach,” the mayor said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.