CUIMC Supports New York State Bill to Eliminate Non-Medical Exemptions for Childhood Vaccinations
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
A.2371 (Dinowitz)/S.2994 (Hoylman)
AN ACT to repeal subdivision 9 of section 2164 of the public health law, relating to the exemption from vaccination requirements
Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) supports A.2371 (Dinowitz)/S.2994 (Hoylman). This bill would amend the Public Health Law to eliminate non-medical exemptions from childhood vaccination requirements. Vaccine exemptions should only be permitted in limited instances where a healthcare practitioner determines that the vaccine would be medically inappropriate for the patient.
Based on well accepted public health law policy and sound scientific evidence, New York law requires that every child attending school submit proof of certain vaccinations and that parents or guardians provide evidence of such vaccination before the child may be admitted to school. These vaccinations protect infants, children, adolescents, and adults from preventable diseases. Unfortunately, overuse of the exceptions to these requirements have had the effect of undermining important public health objectives and eroding public confidence in vaccines.
Before vaccination became widespread in this country, the United States averaged about 500,000 reported measles cases annually, but with vaccines, once ubiquitous childhood infections like measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, and others have become rare. Vaccinations protect children and the individuals they encounter from serious illness and complications that may include amputation of an arm or leg, paralysis of limbs, vision or hearing loss, convulsions, brain damage, and death.
One example of dangers created by lack of vaccinations is the recent surge in cases of measles in New York, and across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that the number of individual reported cases of measles in 2019 is the greatest number of cases in the US in over twenty five years. Unfortunately, the New York City area has become the center of this surge and according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the uptick in the rate of measles infection has reached the level of a public health emergency. Measles can have a harmful effect on anyone who becomes infected, but is most deadly for infants, pregnant women, and persons with otherwise weak immune systems. Swiftly enacting this legislation would ensure that New York only allows for medical exemptions from immunizations. It would be an important step towards protecting all New Yorkers from this and many other vaccine preventable diseases. The MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, is safe and effective.
CUIMC is widely recognized as one of the nation’s top academic medical centers. Our faculty includes many of the world’s leading experts on infectious diseases and vaccination. As an organization of health care professionals, CUIMC understands the importance of educating the public and encouraging the use of vaccinations as a routine health care best practice. For the reasons outlined above, we strongly support A.2371/S.2994.