Will New York become a petri dish for measles?
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Credit: AP / Mary Conlon
In South Carolina, many adults and children now have to worry if they go to the grocery store, a museum or school. Wherever they go, residents — particularly in Spartanburg County — could be exposed to measles, putting themselves and their families at risk.
And South Carolina’s story could easily become Long Island’s.
As of Tuesday, South Carolina’s health department reported 646 cases of measles — a remarkable increase of more than 200 in the last week. The department maintains a chart listing every location where there’s been public exposure to measles: Publix. Food Lion. Walmart. A state museum. A fitness gym. Meanwhile, at least 15 elementary, middle and high schools and two universities have students in quarantine.
New Yorkers might dismiss that situation as irrelevant, since we haven’t had a similar outbreak in years. Last year, New York State reported 48 measles cases, including one on Long Island.
But there’s an effort underway that, if successful, could turn New York into a petri dish for diseases like measles, diseases once considered eliminated nationwide.
And it’s directly related to what currently separates New York from South Carolina.
In South Carolina, the vaccination rate among school-age children is just 90% — too low to achieve the necessary communal protection known as herd immunity. Part of the reason for that low rate is that unvaccinated children in South Carolina can legally attend school as long as they have a religious exemption to the state’s vaccine requirements.
New York banned a similar religious exemption in 2019, amid its own measles outbreak, although a limited medical exemption remains.
But now, anti-vax advocates and those who oppose vaccine mandates in New York are trying multiple strategies to undo that ban and allow unvaccinated children to attend school. That would lower overall immunization rates, leaving those who are immunocompromised, or who are too young or otherwise unable to be vaccinated, in danger.
A bill in Congress called the GRACE Act, which includes Rep. Nick LaLota among its co-sponsors, would prohibit states from receiving federal education funding if they don’t permit religious exemptions.
More worrisome is a federal lawsuit brought last month by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vax nonprofit co-founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Health and Human Services secretary. The case, filed in the Eastern District of New York against New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald, attempts to piggyback on a 2025 Supreme Court case.
In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court said public schools had to allow families to opt out of reading LGBTQ+-related books or participating in lessons that conflicted with their religious beliefs. Children’s Health Defense, and seven anonymous plaintiffs, including one from Nassau County, argue the same standard should apply to vaccination. The lawsuit claims the Nassau County plaintiff, known as Jane Doe, is Catholic and “has long understood that God is directing her to refuse all vaccines for herself and for her children.”
It’s important to note that most religions, including the Catholic Church, do not prohibit vaccination, and many religious leaders encourage it. Too many families hide behind the religious exemption, even when they really just oppose vaccination and vaccination requirements, or don’t believe in long-standing science.
This is a tenuous moment. South Carolina illustrates just how real the danger is. If the anti-vax movement’s efforts succeed, New Yorkers heading to the grocery store or sending their children to school could once again find themselves at risk of serious illness or death, from diseases that should and would be eradicated, if only trust in public health and science returned.
Columnist Randi F. Marshall’s opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
