In
C.F. v. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2019 NYLJ LEXIS 1419 (Kings Cty. Sup. Ct., April 3, 2019), a New York state trial court judge has upheld the latest version of New York City's declaration of a public health emergency to combat the measles outbreak. The court said in part:
The pivotal question posed for this court's determination is whether Respondent Commissioner has a rational, non-pretextual basis for declaring a public health emergency and issuing the attendant orders challenged herein. The evidence in this regard is largely uncontroverted. The unvarnished truth is that these diagnoses represent the most significant spike in incidences of measles in the United States in many years and that the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is at its epicenter. It has already begun to spread to remote locations....
The court went on to reject petitioner's scientific, religious and moral objections to the orders issued by the Department of Health:
Petitioners' medical experts opine, variously, that the MMR vaccine is ineffective, is of greater risk than non-vaccination and that the MMR vaccine itself propagates the very disease it was designed to prevent. These contentions are completely unsupported by studies, medical literature or other acceptable evidence....
The religious objection exemption contained in Public Health Law 2164(a) applies only to the certificate of immunization required to admit a child to school, not to remedies attendant upon declaration of a public health emergency. Even if it did apply, the affidavits ... are entirely unsupported by an affidavit of a religious official (priest, rabbi, etc.) or other doctrinal documentation tending to support their opinion....
Petitioners have raised various moral objections seemingly centered around a claim that the order(s) would compel forced vaccination. An examination of the orders indicates, and respondents concede that they do not require forcible vaccination. Accordingly, this court need not address the issue of forcible vaccination....
