Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to sign the bill into law, calling the outbreak a public safety issue.
ALBANY, N.Y. – After a day of contentious debate, New York lawmakers voted Thursday to end the state's religious exemption from vaccines that had allowed parents to send their unvaccinated children to school or day care
"This administration has taken aggressive action to contain the measles outbreak, but given its scale, additional steps are needed to end this public health crisis," Cuomo said in a statement. The Assembly narrowly voted for the measure, 77-53, just one vote more than needed than necessary. Rarely does a bill in Albany pass with so few votes.
But after a lengthy, contentious meeting Thursday afternoon in a conference room filled with vaccination skeptics and religious-rights advocates, the 26 members of the committee were deadlocked, 13-13.As Assembly staffers tallied votes and realized they were one short, Sayegh rose from his seat and approached Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan.
Assemblyman Andrew Raia, R-Suffolk County, warned that parents may be forced to get their children the vaccines even if they suffer from adverse effects from them. "We don’t want to give credence to the anti-vaxxers," he said on the Senate floor, charging that opponents can use the religious exemption as a"guise" for their misguided personal views.Measles outbreak 'continues to rage' in New York county as state of emergency renewsVaccine bill spurs major debate
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