1,001 Cases And Counting: As Measles Outbreak Keeps Growing, Health Officials Stress The Safety Of Vaccines

But that message about the potentially fatal disease is being refuted by a group of anti-vaccines parents in New York City. Other news on the epidemic is on the stalled efforts to prevent religious exemptions in New York and a California poll finding nearly 75% of parents support vaccinations.

Reuters: U.S. Records 1,000th Case Of Measles, Officials Blame Misinformation For Outbreak
The United States has recorded 1,001 measles cases so far this year in the worst outbreak of the highly contagious disease in more than a quarter-century, federal health officials said on Wednesday as they issued a new plea for parents to vaccinate their children. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 61 new cases have been reported since May 27 of the sometimes deadly disease. It is the highest number of cases since 1992, when the CDC recorded 2,126 cases. (6/5)

The Washington Post: New York Anti-Vaccine Event Attracts Pro-Vaccine Protests Amid Measles Outbreak
Anti-vaccine activists held their second rally here in several weeks Tuesday night, questioning vaccine safety in a community battling its worst measles outbreak in nearly 30 years, amid protests by health officials and pro-vaccine parents. The event, which barred reporters, featured conspiracy theorist Rabbi Hillel Handler and Del Bigtree, head of one of the nation’s most active anti-vaccine groups and producer of a film alleging the government suppressed a link between the measles vaccine and autism (studies involving hundreds of thousands of children have repeatedly disproved such a link). (Guarino and Sun, 6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Bill Ending Religious Exemptions On Vaccines Stalls In Albany
As the rate of new measles cases in New York City has slowed, so too has the momentum behind a legislative bill in Albany that would repeal the religious exemption to New York’s school vaccination requirements. The bill, which would repeal an exception to school vaccination requirements for parents’ “genuine and sincere religious beliefs,” has stalled in the health committee of the state Assembly with just two weeks left before the legislature breaks for the summer. (West, 6/5)

Sacramento Bee: Most Californians Say Parents Should Vaccinate Their Kids
Close to 75 percent of 1,713 surveyed adults think that parents should vaccinate their children, a new Public Policy Institute of California poll released on Wednesday showed. Nearly eight in 10 said they worry a recent nationwide outbreak of 981 measles cases will continue to spread. There are 47 reported cases in California. (Wiley, 6/5)

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