OPINION:
So New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may run for the presidency.
But his own constituency — his own Big Apple voters — say with a 76 percent voice in a recent Quinnipiac University survey that he shouldn’t.
And here’s a thought for the 24 percent in the city who are on the fence, as well as for the untold numbers around the country who think this progressive could bring big benefits to the Democratic Party’s nomination process: De Blasio’s kind of waded into police state waters.
He’s recently OK’d the forced vaccinations of everyone who lives within the geographical boundaries of four ZIP codes heavily infected with measles. How so? By declaring a public health emergency and then rubber-stamping an order to vaccinate issued and signed by his commissioner of health, Oxiris Barbot.
So you think you have a right to control your medical treatments?
Defying de Blasio’s demand carries a $1,000 penalty. Oh, and possibly imprisonment.
“Non-compliance with the order is a misdemeanor subject to criminal and civil fines, including imprisonment,” PR Newswire put out in a news release from Children’s Health Defense.
Moreover, even babies as young as 6 months old are required to get the Measles, Mumps and Rubella shot — despite the fact the federal government’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the MMR vaccination shouldn’t be administered before age 12 months. Yes, that’s exactly right. According to the CDC, the MMR “minimum age [is] 12 months for routine vaccination,” the CDC’s website states.
De Blasio’s order comes amid a measles outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish sections of the city; 285 cases have been confirmed in Brooklyn and Queens since October, according to NYC Health statistics.
His mind may be in the right place — to preserve the safety of the city. But his methods? Questionable, at best.
Gestapo-like, at worst.
“I am shocked that Mayor de Blasio would resort to such police state techniques to control an outbreak of measles,” said Children’s Health Defense board member Mary Holland, in a written statement. “I don’t believe the city’s actions will withstand legal scrutiny.”
It shouldn’t.
Merck, a company licensed to provide the MMR vaccine, is fighting off accusations its company scientists falsified data about the mumps component of its medicine — “triggering dangerous outbreaks in older populations where it can cause sterility in men and women,” the Children’s Health Defense reported.
Well, that’s not good. Neither is this: The CDC apparently found 9,200 cases of mumps in adults who were supposedly vaccinated against mumps with this MMR shot. That’s bigger than the measles outbreak in New York City. Or the one in Rockland County, where the recently confirmed 153 cases led local authorities to ban unvaccinated minors from public spaces. Or the 372 cases that were reported for all of the United States in all of 2018.
But the thing is, forced vaccination is not exactly an American way.
Even the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, says so.
“Look,” Cuomo said, in an interview on WAMC radio, “[measles] is a serious public health concern, but it’s also a serious First Amendment issue, and it is going to be a constitutional, legal question. Do we have the right — does society, government, have the right to say ’you must vaccinate your child because I’m afraid your child is going to infect my child, even if you don’t want it done and even if it violates your religious beliefs?’ “
Legal challengers who’ve launched a suit against de Blasio’s order say no. Heck, no.
Either way, de Blasio’s tipped his police state hat. His order is mucho un-presidential.
If he feels emboldened to order city residents to get a shot for the sake of others, for the good of others, just think what he’d do in the White House on a national scale.
On this, de Blasio should listen to Quinnipiac’s 76 percenters. Keep the dictatorial style of governance confined to the ZIP codes of New York City.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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