NYS Mulls Ending Non-Medical Exemptions To Vaccines [POLL]

State and local officials from the Hudson Valley traveled to Albany recently to urge state lawmakers to pass legislation that advocates said would help control the measles outbreak. Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Sen. David Carlucci, D-Westchester/Rockland, said there was an ongoing crisis across the country with measles outbreaks reaching the highest level of cases in 25 years.

Carlucci said, in Brooklyn and Rockland, there is a public health emergency with the number of cases rising, "while inaccurate information continues to fuel anti-vaccine sentiment.

"If we follow the science, then we know vaccines save lives," he said.

Rockland has seen a steady increase in the number of reported cases of confirmed measles over the past few months, reaching 214 confirmed cases as of May 3.

At the end of April, Suffolk County reported its first adult case of measles and warned residents who may have visited the BNB Bank in Hampton Bays that they may have been exposed to measles. Since then, additional locations where exposure may have occurred have been identified.

The bills Carlucci is touting are S2994, which would ban all non-medical exemptions from vaccinations, and S5136, which would fund a vaccination awareness campaign. Carlucci is a co-sponsor of S2994 and is the sponsor of S5136.

The bill that would ban non-medical exemptions has been introduced in years past but didn't gain traction because of GOP majorities in the Senate.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D- Bronx, is the sponsor of the Assembly version of the no non-medical exemption bills.

He said the state allowing a religious exemption has given parents who believe in the anti-vaccine movement a way to avoid vaccinating their children, the New York Times said.

"They just don't want their kids vaccinated because they bought into the nonsense on the internet," Dinowitz told the Times. "And you can't convince them that they're wrong."

The American Academy of Pediatrics is firmly in Dinowitz's corner.

Leaders of the medical organization have called for the elimination of non-medical exemptions to vaccination to be the top priority for the year, aappublications.org said.

"Given the measles outbreaks, prioritizing the elimination of non-medical vaccine exemptions is a timely undertaking," said AAP President Kyle E. Yasuda, M.D., FAAP.

Now it's your turn. Should the state lawmakers pass legislation that would help fight the measles outbreak? Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.