By Jefferey Jaxen

This past week New York plunged headfirst into a modern-day social and medical experiment. At the behest of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a public health emergency was declared targeting everyone who resides in certain Brooklyn neighborhoods. The order, which is slated to end on April 17th, required all residents living in four separate zip codes to get vaccinated within 48 hours with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine or stiff penalties. Due to the high Jewish population involved, de Blasio threatened to fine or temporarily shut down yeshivas that did not abide by the measure.

We are absolutely certain we have the power to do this,” Mr. de Blasio said. But then again, so was Rockland County Executive Ed Day whose emergency declaration was overturned and ended recently by Rockland County Court Judge Rolf Thorsen.

For the general public, de Blasio’s press conference declaring the public health emergency entered the new terms “disease detectives” and “contact tracing” into the public consciousness. New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot explained, “People in violation of the order will be identified through investigations of exposures. Our disease detectives will check for vaccination status or immunity when tracing the contacts of a person who has developed the illness.

She went on to say, “We are going to be identifying individuals by contact tracing…If in those situations they’re found to be exposed and unvaccinated, we will do anything and everything possible to help them get vaccinated.

The lack of thoroughness and shortsightedness of the order was hard to ignore. Almost immediately, Newsweek reported NYC officials listed the wrong zip codes for the measles vaccination order then changed it without telling anyone. Newsweek wrote, “[the] order from Commissioner Oxiris Barbot’s office changed Tuesday night. The change to the order removed the 11221 ZIP code and replaced it with another, very similar ZIP, 11211. The new ZIP code covers a large area of Williamsburg.” 

Beyond the zip code fiasco, deeper issues were implicitly missed. Experts have acknowledged that the current measles vaccine cannot eradicate measles because of primary and secondary failure. But according to de Blasio, “The only way to stop this outbreak is to ensure that those who have not been vaccinated get the vaccine.” A further scientific fact about the MMR vaccine which is now blanketing much of the targeted Brooklyn-based zip codes and beyond is that the shot can cause many of the symptoms of the measles. Listed on the Merck’s MMR vaccine insert, symptoms can include, cough, fever, measles-like rash, encephalitis and encephalopathy. According to the documents obtained chronicling the pre-licensure clinical trials used to approve the shot, almost thirty percent of the children in all of the combined studies acquired “upper respiratory illnesses” and over twenty-one percent experienced “gastrointestinal illness.” Due to the aggressive vaccination campaign, will health care practitioners and the greater community be able to immediately distinguish a vaccine reaction from an actual measles case?

The immunocompromised population has been historically served up as a main reason all members of society must get all government recommended vaccines in perpetuity no matter what the adverse risk may be. New York City’s aggressive vaccine mandate has likely created another issue. Merck’s MMR vaccine insert also talks about virus shedding from those who recently receive the shot stating, “Excretion of small amounts of the live attenuated rubella virus from the nose or throat has occurred in the majority of susceptible individuals 7 to 28 days after vaccination.” Has New York City just traded a measles problem for a rubella problem? From the standpoint of the immunocompromised individual in the targeted Brooklyn-based zip codes, are they better off having a low number of active measles cases who were most likely staying home or out of public places given the severity and fines faced? Or is that immunocompromised individual now at a greater relative risk given the massive influx of active live virus shedders, unconscious of their condition and not self-quarantining, due to the aggressive vaccine campaign happening in such a condensed area?

Another social aspect birthed directly from government-sponsored fear is the impact on the greater community. The NY Post recently ran the title Brooklyn’s measles epidemic driving bitter divide in Jewish Orthodox community. The article told the stories of communities and individual families being torn apart.

An unspoken snitch culture is also inherent in de Blasio’s order. For families who have been open about their personal medical decisions, they are now undoubtedly fearing the eyes of suspicion, the reality of being shunned or unfairly blamed. Religious exemptions and valid concerns to vaccinations have evaporated leaving a misdemeanor subject to civil and/or criminal fines, forfeitures and penalties, including imprisonment for ‘offenders.’ The monopolized, for-profit product [the MMR vaccine] of a historically disingenuous corporation [Merck] is now being forced by government with serious reproductions to those who don’t comply. 

Meanwhile, New York state is racing towards what could best be described as a dangerous medical dictatorship with legislation running alongside its forced public health orders. The state is making it known that they will be hospitable to a pharmaceutical-based agenda sans individual consent. 13 currently active bills are moving in the state with a bill attempting to mandate reporting of vaccination to a registry without consent, a bill to allow children 14 and older to be vaccinated without parental consent, a bill to eliminate religious exemptions to vaccination, a bill to allow health care practitioners to administer HPV and hepatitis B vaccines to minors without parental consent, a bill to mandate the highly controversial HPV vaccine, and a bill to allow forced vaccination and medical treatment under certain circumstances.

Commissioner Barbot stated in the recent press conference that if the health department’s disease detectives identify an individual that has been exposed and unvaccinated, they will do
“anything and everything possible to help them get vaccinated.” New York’s active bill A099 allows government officials to order the removal and/or detention of a person or a group of people who are a contact or carrier of a contagious disease that, in the opinion of the governor, after consultation with the commissioner, may pose an imminent and significant threat to the public health. The bill also allows for requiring testing, medical examination, a prescribed course of treatment, preventive medicine or vaccination as options for further enforcement. How would the language and tone of the press conference have been different if A099 was passed?

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