ALBANY, NY - Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WF-Manhattan) released the following statement in response to the measles outbreak in Rockland County. Hoylman is the sponsor of legislation (S2994/A2371) to end non-medical exemptions for vaccines in New York.

Senator Hoylman said: “Twenty years ago, measles were virtually eradicated from the United States. Today, New York is facing a state of emergency with its worst measles outbreak in four decades. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children put the health and safety of every other vulnerable New Yorker at risk. As the parent of two young kids, this is personal for me. It’s time for New York to confront this public health crisis head-on and pass the legislation I carry with Assemblymember Dinowitz to end exemptions for vaccines across New York State, except when it is medically necessary. We can’t afford to wait a minute longer.”

Current law requires children to receive vaccines for polio, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, HiB, hepatitis B, and varicella. Senator Hoylman’s legislation would repeal an exemption to this law that allows children to avoid vaccination on the grounds that they contradict the “genuine and sincere religious belief” of the child’s parents.

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