Measles in Brooklyn by Sarah McGovern

    As you've probably heard on the news recently, more and more people are deciding to go "all natural" by refusing to vaccinate themselves and their children. While 99% of children in school are vaccinated, the 1% that aren't are at risk of being exposed to viruses like measles. One child who was unvaccinated travel to Israel and upon being home spread the measles to six children, ranging from 11 months to four years old, five of whom were unvaccinated and one was too young to have been vaccinated. They have been contained and are being monitored by the city's Health Department.

     The main concern of doctors is that measles can eventually lead to more health concerns like pneumonia and inflammation of the brain or tissues. Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the leading commissioner of the New York Health Department, says the problem is that there are still people who "refuse to get their children vaccinated and that had consequences". Although the vast majority of people who are able to get a vaccine do, the amount of people who don't is gradually getting larger as being "all natural" becomes more popular. The leading argument of why not to vaccinate is that sometimes vaccines have serious side effects or could cause an allergic reaction. However, the chance of that happening is 1 or 2 in a million, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. As the measles incident in Brooklyn proved, one unvaccinated child can cause a chain reaction of measles and spread the virus.

Measles cases went down drastically in 2011 and made a reappearance beginning in 2014.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/nyregion/new-york-today-measles-in-brooklyn.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront