Arguments regarding vaccinations continue and a federal judge in New York has denied a request to allow unvaccinated children to return to school amidst the measles outbreak in the US. Vincent Briccetti, the US District Court Judge has ruled that 44 students who were not allowed to return to school at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Rockland County, New York and cited an unprecedented measles outbreak.
The ruling was given against a lawyer who represented the studentsâ parents who had filed a lawsuit while challenging the Rockland Health Department and its commissioner for not allowing the unvaccinated children to attend school. The lawsuit had argued that the decision made by the health department to bar students from campus, violates the rights of the familiesâ right not to vaccinate the children for religious reasons.
Briccetti in court said, “The plaintiffs have not demonstrated that public interest weighs in favor of granting an injunction”. The parents of the children who are not vaccinated have said that their children have not contracted measles. The region has been dealing with the problem of measles outbreak since last fall. Some of the news reports have stated that there have been 145 cases of measles reported in the area since October, 2018 with three more suspected cases that are currently being investigated.
An order was issued by the Rockland health Department that issued an order in December that certain schools in the specific zip codes with vaccination rates under 95 percent must prohibit unvaccinated children from going to school. Measles outbreak and the issue of being vaccinated has been on a rise in recent times. A few parents have cited religious reasons behind not getting their children vaccinated while others are from the anti-vaccination group who have an impression that vaccination can increase the risk of autism. But a number of studies in recent times have said that it is a myth that vaccination can cause autism.
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