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The radical rollback by the Trump administration of the schedule of vaccines required for the nation's tens of millions of children and a resurgence in measles nationally, prompted the New York City Council's Health Committee to convene hearings this week to hear from New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin.
WBAI carried these hearings LIVE as well as a LIVE call-in show hosted by Jenna Flanagan and Dr. Steve Auerbach, a retired U.S. Public Health Service Captain specializing in pediatrics and epidemiology.
"Across the United States, childhood vaccination rates continue to decline....with vaccination exemptions reaching an all-time high," reports the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The significant drop-off comes as public health officials report measles outbreaks across the country with "the highest number of measles cases since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000."
Last year, Texas recorded the first measles deaths since 2015. CNN is reporting 31 states have documented 1,316 cases of measles with 77 percent of the cases detected in people under 20 years old.
The spike in cases comes at the same time as several changes to the schedule of vaccinations by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that reflects his long-standing and highly controversial skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines.
Fifteen states have sued Kennedy alleging that the Trump administration's rollback is "the culmination of a series of unlawful actions in furtherance of Secretary Kennedy's idiosyncratic and unscientific hostility to vaccines."
Dr. Martin, who was just appointed by Mayor Mamdani, was sharply critical of Kennedy's moves.
"As we face an avalanche of federal mis and disinformation and unscientific changes to vaccination guidance, we have positioned ourselves as a fortified counterweight," Dr. Martin testified. "We will adhere to the child and adolescent immunization schedule put forward by the American Academy of Pediatrics. To ensure our city has clear instructions, we sent out guidance to over 47,000 New York City healthcare providers endorsing the AAP’s childhood vaccination schedule and offering resources to answer questions from families."
Dr. Martin continued. "When the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization this January, the New York City Health Department became the first municipal health department in the country to join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). Our membership ensures we can access and share critical information and resources across hundreds of public health institutions worldwide. The United States adopted a dangerous isolationist approach by leaving the World Health Organization."
Dr. Martin told the City Council the city continued to recommend that everyone six months and older got this season’s flu and COVID-19 shots.
"Across all of our vaccination work, we have a deep understanding of just how important it is to build trust at the ground level," Dr. Martin said. "That is why perhaps the most concerning part of the volatile federal changes is the deliberate creation of confusion. We are the oldest and largest local Health Department in the United States, and in the absence of federal leadership, we have become a source of truth for the nation."
According to the City Council the Citywide Immunization Registry documents "the overall percentage of children who received all recommended vaccines has increased since 2018. Yet, "major disparities continue to exist in vaccination rates across racial and ethnic groups" with vaccination coverage among 24–35-month-olds just 48 percent for non-Hispanic white children and 58 percent for non-Hispanic Black children, compared with 89 percent for non-Hispanic Asian children and 71 percent for Hispanic/Latino children.
The City Council is deliberating on several pieces of legislation designed to promote vaccination including Introduction 693, sponsored by Council Member Eric Dinowitz, requiring the city to develop and implement a plan to educate the public regarding the importance of childhood and adolescent vaccinations.
"The Federal Government claims that these changes were implemented to increase trust in vaccines and to reverse concerning trends in vaccination rates," said City Council Health Committee Chair Lynn Shulman. "However, these changes represent a major shift that could have broad impacts on the health of children in this city. While the recommendations of the city and the state have remained the same, the reliance on misinformation in the Federal Government and the conflicting messages members of the public are receiving may further depress vaccination rates, especially in vulnerable and already under-vaccinated populations."
