‘Boiled Frog’ Game Continues as New Yorkers Face Jail Time for Skipping Measles Vaccine
Written by Dr. Joseph Mercola
Apr 23, 2019

[snip]

On March 26, 2019, Rockland County, New York, executive Ed Day issued a state of emergency, barring children under the age of 18 who had not gotten a measles-containing MMR shot from entering public places, including schools, restaurants, churches, synagogues and public transportation.

The ban was initially set to expire once the state of emergency was lifted in 30 days, but was cut short when an acting New York State Supreme Court judge issued an injunction lifting the state of emergency on April 5, saying the number of measles cases did not meet the legal definition of an epidemic required for an emergency order declaration.

A few days later, on April 8, 2019, New York City health officials ordered Orthodox Jewish schools and day care programs in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to bar unvaccinated students from attending classes for the remainder of the measles outbreak, or face closure.

The next day, April 9, public health officials ordered residents in four Williamsburg, New York zip codes — 11205, 11206, 11211, 112495 — to get vaccinated within 48 hours or face a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

The order applied to any individual who lives, works or goes to school in these Brooklyn zip codes and has not gotten an MMR shot and/or cannot show proof of natural immunity or does not have an approved medical vaccine exemption. According to the Daily Mail, city officials plan to “track unvaccinated people by tracing anyone who may have come into contact with people who have measles.”

In a follow-up move on April 15, 2019, on behalf of five Brooklyn mothers identified only by their initials, lawyers Robert Krakow, Robert F. Kennedy (of the litigation advocacy group Children’s Health Defense) and Patricia Finn filed a legal challenge in the New York State Trial Court,7,8 asking for a temporary restraining order against the New York City Department of Health and Human Hygiene and its commissioner as respondents for issuing the Williamsburg neighborhood MMR vaccination mandate.

Although New York Justice Lawrence Knipel initially denied a temporary restraining order, the preliminary injunction issue is expected to be argued in court.

But not to be undone, in a game of moves and countermoves, the very next day, April 16, 2019, Rockland executive Day announced a new order that he and local health officials are now imposing: Get vaccinated or face a $2,000-per-violation, per day, fine.