Rockland County, New York Declared State of Emergency Due To Measles Outbreak

One month after our article on “Middle Ground“‘s vaccines discussion, a measles outbreak disrupts a New York county. Rockland County located an hour drive north of NYC has been declared a state of emergency due to measles outbreaks resulting from unvaccinated people.

Rockland County Executive, Ed Day, assured the public that the goal is not to arrest people, the goal is to take action against the startling number of measles outbreak. Ed Day told the assembly, “we have now the worst outbreak in the nation.”

For a county so close to one of the most populated cities in the country, it’s an extremely alarming situation to be in.

The live stream of Rockland County‘s declaration said that according to NYSIIS (New York State Immunization Information System) 72% of the population is vaccinated.

When further questioned about the goal for this state of emergency, he replied, “this is really educational at this point, but with the firm stroke of a pen […] we’re trying to gain compliance.”

Some people were concerned that arrests would take place if an adult who has never been vaccinated goes to the hospital.

Day responded, “we are focusing on the parents of the children under 18.” He stressed that this was the target audience, and he really hoped to make them understand that they must take their child to get the vaccination. He continued later on “If a parent is found to not be complying to the law, they will be referred to the district attorney.”

Many were concerned as to how they would get those who aren’t vaccinated, vaccinated, which he said, “no one will be forced to be vaccinated but the parents will be held accountable, which we should be doing.”

When asked if Rockland County had a high number of anti-vaxxers, he said, “we have pockets of anti-vax people here, same in Westchester County.”

Ending the assembly, Ed Day expressed his goal and reasonings for this state of emergency:

“this is not something we enter into lightly, we enter with a purpose […] the timing right now is ideal […] to take this action. our goal is to tell people ‘you need to be responsible for your children, you need to be responsible for the community.'”

With that, Ed Day urged the public to help with the eradication of the measles the way they were eradicated in the 2000s.