Measles crisis: Public health outweighs civil rights concerns | Editorial

The measles outbreak in New York — centered largely in Rockland County, just to the north of many of our readers — is an urgent concern for the greater metropolitan region. 

Since the outbreak began in October, some 180 cases have been reported in Rockland. Here in New Jersey, the outbreak touched Lakewood late last fall and again in February and March. The outbreak, as has been reported by the USA TODAY NETWORK, began with celebrations of the Jewish new year last September. New York health officials linked the outbreak to seven people who traveled between Israel and New York during the holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, between Sept. 9 and Sept. 19. 

Measles were brought to Rockland and New Jersey through exposure in the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities that exist in those two communities and in New York city. 

Measles outbreak:Epidemic blazes across New York, New Jersey

North of the border:Rockland measles outbreak: Up to 180 cases, more exposure sites

The outbreak has presented a fascinating and confounding intersection between interests of public health and individuals' civil rights around vaccination. 

Case-in-point: Ed Day, the Rockland County Executive, declared a state of emergency on March 26, in which he ordered that anyone under 18 years of age and unvaccinated against the measles barred from public places for 30 days or until they received the MMR vaccination. That state of emergency was tossed by a New York state supreme court judge April 5 after a group of parents of unvaccinated children challenged it. 

Since Judge Rolf Thorsen's injunction, which held that the outbreak did not rise to the level of an epidemic or a disaster, additional cases — including eight in Westchester County, New York, just this week — have been diagnosed. 

With all that context outlined, let us be plain:

» We believe in the merits of vaccination. 

» We believe that every person who is medically able should receive MMR vaccination. 

» We support emergency declarations like the one New York City declared earlier this week. That order requires MMR vaccination for unvaccinated people in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. 

Should the measles epidemic grow in scope in New Jersey, we strongly encourage elected and appointed public officials to consider declarations similar to New York City's.

Vaccination is essential to break the spread of measles; public-health concerns far outweigh contentions that vaccination is a civil right.