Health officials have confirmed approximately 200 cases of measles over the past four months, with the vast majority of them concentrated in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County that have vaccination rates significantly below the state average. | Leo Correa/AP Photo Amid measles outbreak, Assembly bill would repeal vaccine exemption

ALBANY — A Democratic Assemblyman wants to repeal a provision in state law allowing parents to opt-out of vaccinating their children if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. The move comes amid New York’s worst measles outbreak since 1989.

“Kids are getting sick, and they’re getting sick because they’re not getting vaccinated. It’s that simple,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) told POLITICO.


Health officials have confirmed approximately 200 cases of measles over the past four months, with the vast majority of them concentrated in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County that have vaccination rates significantly below the state average.

Dinowitz last week introduced a bill, NY A2371 (19R), that would eliminate the part of the public health law that allows children to still attend school despite not having all or any of the required vaccinations if it violates the family’s “genuine and sincere religious beliefs.”

He has proposed the bill in the past, but it has never gained serious traction. Even less dramatic changes to the religious exemption, including a bill, NY S2289 (19R), that would require parents refusing to vaccinate their children to file an affidavit acknowledging the risks, have not come close to passing.

If anything, momentum had been in the other direction, with a bill that would have made it easier for parents to exercise the exemption by creating a standardized form that removes a school administrator’s subjectivity.

Assembly Health Chairman Dick Gottfried (D-Manhattan), who sponsored that bill, is a strong proponent of vaccinations but does not believe the state should infringe on people’s religious freedom.

“The answer to the measles outbreak is not to undermine protection for people’s religious beliefs,” he said in a statement. “The religious exemption is the wrong target here, because this outbreak really is about a social frame of mind. The right answer is well-founded public health practice: education and community outreach."

Dinowitz acknowledged that his bill’s chances of passage are a long shot — given the inevitable blowback from the religious community and the state’s messy politics around vaccines, more generally — but it’s necessary to counteract backsliding vaccination rates.

“Too many children who aren’t vaccinated, the herd immunity is gone,” he said. “I’m not overly optimistic about its chances, but I do think the community health benefit outweighs the individual choices of parents.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently declared a state of emergency after an outbreak in the state with some three dozen cases. Assemblywomen Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont) and Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan) sent a letter Wednesday to Health Commissioner Howard Zucker asking him to do take similar action.

“As a state, we cannot take the recent measles outbreak lightly,” they wrote. “We urge New York State to take every precaution to prevent the resurgence of this fatal disease.”

Zucker told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that DOH is reviewing potential legislation, but did not offer specifics.