A major health alarm
There is currently a "major" problem concentrated in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community which does not vaccinate their children. This alarm has now resulted in the Mayor threatening to close down the yeshivas until all the children are vaccinated.
From today's NYT:
New York City on Tuesday declared a public health emergency following a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city would require unvaccinated individuals living in select ZIP codes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to receive the measles vaccine as the city escalated its efforts to stem one of the largest measles outbreaks in decades.
The mayor said that the city would issue violations and possibly fines for those who did not comply.
“This is the epicenter of a measles outbreak that is very, very troubling and must be dealt with immediately,” Mr. de Blasio said at a news conference in Williamsburg, adding, “The measles vaccine works. It is safe, it is effective, it is time-tested.”
To be sure this same issue applies to all childhood maladies, including chickenpoxs, and mumps-----all of which many of us considered part of growing up.
I have a bit of a problem with getting so wound up over this. My only reservation is that this group of people are experts in leveraging the system for entitlements, thus there is a cost to all of this which will be shared by the larger community.
Wat say you?
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis