Anti-Vaxxer Parents Denied Appeal In Measles Suit Against City

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A group of moms who believe the city shouldn't be allowed to mandate Measles vaccinations were denied an appeal in their lawsuit against New York City, a state court ruled this week.

The Appellate Division, Second Department, declined Monday to hear arguments from the five anti-vaxxers who argued the city overstepped its bounds by requiring Williamsburg residents get the Measles vaccines or face a fine, the New York Post reported.

The most recent ruling follows an April 18 decision by Brooklyn Judge Lawrence Knipel to dismiss the lawsuit.

Herminia Palacio, the city's deputy mayor for health and human services, said Monday that she is thankful for the appeals court decision. The city is doing everything it can, she said, to end the measles outbreak, which has reached 423 people in Brooklyn as of this week.

"Vaccination is the only way to end this outbreak," Palacio said in a statement. "We are confident our emergency order was based on solid public health and legal ground, and we will continue to enforce our mandatory vaccination order. Measles represents a serious public health risk and deserves an appropriate response.”

The decision came just a few hours after the city announced that they closed two more Brooklyn schools for not following their vaccination orders, and have issued summonses to 57 people so far for not getting the required vaccine. The two new schools, both in Bed-stuy, are among seven the city has had to close during the disease outbreak, which started in October.

In the original April 18 ruling, Knipel rejected the mothers' claims that they had scientific, religious and moral objections to Mayor Bill de Blasio's public health emergency order, which was issued earlier this month.

Knipel said the mothers claim that the MMR vaccine is ineffective and would put their children at a greater risk of the disease was "completely unsupported by studies, medical literature or acceptable evidence," records show.

He also concluded that religious exemptions only apply to certificate of immunizations used to admit children to school and that the moral argument against "forced vaccinations" wasn't relevant given that the city was not physically forcing the vaccinations.

Ultimately, Knipel said, the emergency declaration was warranted by the outbreak, which he noted has its "epicenter" in Williamsburg.

“A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire,” he wrote. "Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion.”