HOST INTRO: This week, WXXI is looking back at the events and people that made news in

20-19. Today, health reporter Brett Dahlberg takes us through changes in New York’s laws
around vaccines.

BRETT: Early in 2019, Monroe County’s largest measles outbreak on record sickened seven
children. County health department spokesperson Ryan Horey said there was one clear
commonality in all the cases.

HOREY: The important throughline that connects all of these, all seven measles cases in Monroe
County, is that all seven of them are unvaccinated.

BRETT: The Monroe County cases, combined with an outbreak in downstate New York, spurred
state lawmakers to action. They passed legislation making this the first school year in which a
medical exemption form signed by a doctor is the only way around vaccination requirements for
students.

Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski is a Democrat from Rockland County -- the center of the
downstate outbreak.

ZEBROWSKI: We have to protect public health, colleagues. We know what the medical
community believes about vaccinations. We know that they have eradicated diseases.

BRETT: The move sparked legal challenges across the state, but so far, appeals courts have been
upholding the law. Jason Mermigis sued on behalf of an Amish family in Seneca County. The
judge ruled against them.

MERMIGIS: I think that’s a serious, you know, infringement of religious freedoms and religious
rights. To me, I’m shocked. I think that this decision is callous. I think it’s ignorant.

BRETT: Now, as the state ratchets up efforts to bring schools and students into compliance with
the law, they’re running into obstacles.

The state needs to get vaccines to families who haven’t gotten them for years because of
religious exemptions. Most of them are in rural areas. In some schools in the Finger Lakes, not a
single student was up-to-date on immunizations when the school year began.

Sara Christensen is in charge of the immunization program in Yates County, which had the
highest rate of religious exemptions in the state before they were abolished.

Christensen says more than 400 children there were behind on their vaccinations as the school
year started.
CHRISTENSEN: If you have an unvaccinated segment of the population, there’s always that
risk. That’s why we’re always on our toes here, because we know that measles can happen any
day here. Kids die from them.

BRETT: Christensen says she’s still trying to reach some families with unvaccinated children.

Alongside the effort to increase vaccination rates in the state, New York Congressman Joe
Morelle is pushing for similar results on a national level.

Morelle is sponsoring two bills related to vaccines. One would block some federal funding for
states that allow religious exemptions to vaccines. The other would track vaccination rates and
fund increased education efforts in communities where they’re low.

Morelle says raising vaccination rates is important, even if it comes at the expense of religious
freedom.

MORELLE: With all things, you try to strike the appropriate balance, so, while we certainly
respect religious beliefs, there are some practices that religions are not allowed to engage in, in
America, under our laws.

BRETT: Both of those bills are still in committee. No votes are scheduled yet.

Brett Dahlberg, WXXI News.