Rockland's Day knocks NY over polio school vax audit, but state says it's doing the work

Rockland County Executive Ed Day this week slammed the state Department of Health and Gov. Kathy Hochul over a delayed audit of public- and private-school vaccination records. Amid the ongoing circulation of polio in the county, Day said "state health officials are not delivering."

Day also laid blame with the state health department for a 2018-2019 measles outbreak that hit the county and sickened at least 312 people; most of the detected cases were in unvaccinated children.

State health officials, though said Wednesday they are working hard in concert with the county to curb the spread of polio.

“Since identifying the case of paralytic polio in Rockland County in July, as has been done for every emergent outbreak, the state Department of Health mounted an urgent and robust response to mitigate spread, immunize New Yorkers, and support the county, who leads in the development and implementation of their local disease prevention strategy," state Department of Health spokesperson Samantha Fuld said.

Fuld also said the state and the county have indeed been reviewing school immunization information.

"As just one component of these efforts, the department has increased its assistance in the auditing of Rockland schools – with six being completed already."

'Disease detectives': As polio circulates, CDC team embeds in Rockland; here's what they do

Rockland's Ed Day to Biden: Require polio, measles, other vaccines for international visitors

RSV cases surge: Pfizer's Pearl River site is leading vaccine research. What to know

The county, though, has a role too, Fuld said. "The department will continue to assess the virus’ spread and protect New Yorkers, and expects Rockland County − which receives funding, resources and tools from the state for these very purposes − to fulfill their responsibility in ensuring the public health and safety of Rockland County residents," she said.

The governor's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Stealthy virus circulates

In July, a Rockland resident was diagnosed with the polio virus and has suffered permanent paralysis. The case, the first in the U.S. in decades, set off alarms.

Polio is often stealthy − showing symptoms only in a few cases out of every hundred. But it can spread quickly and cause paralysis or even death. Subsequent wastewater tests showed the virus had been present in Rockland, possibly for months, and has also been found in wastewater samples taken in Orange, Sullivan, Nassau and parts of New York City.

Polio, which once struck fear and conjured images of children in leg braces or living in iron lungs, was considered eliminated in the U.S. in 1979.

In August, Rockland County officials said they planned to review immunization records for all public and private schools after their reopening in September "to ensure compliance."

In a letter to local health department leaders dated Wednesday, Nov. 30, state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett outlined the state's steps to ensure schools' compliance with state vaccination rules. The department, Bassett wrote, was stepping up efforts with the state Education Department in light of the detection of polio's circulation in certain counties.

A look at low vax rates

While most schools showed compliance with state school vaccination mandates, state health department data show for children ages 24 months and younger, polio vaccination rates in Rockland lag.

Health officials have said that often, vaccinations are delayed in young children, and then parents catch them up because of the school regulations.

Data show about 60% of babies 2 and younger had received polio vaccines countywide, with just 37.3% in that age group vaccinated against polio in one ZIP code, 10952/Monsey; statewide the polio vaccination rate for that age group was 79%.

Day, a Republican, issued the statement sharply criticizing the Democrat Hochul and her health department in response to questions about the status of a review of school vaccination records.

"Governor Hochul enacted a State of Emergency for Polio in September which has since been extended twice through Dec. 8," the statement read. "We are of the belief a State of Emergency would warrant urgency by NYSDOH and an expeditious completion of this critical audit, but unfortunately state health officials are not delivering and if they continue to operate as such diminish any and all value of the current (State of Emergency) declaration."

Day's statement ended by saying: "We need the Governor and NYSDOH to do their job − and quite frankly are demanding it. The people of New York and Rockland County deserve better.”

The comments come as a special team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department remain embedded in Rockland County to focus on polio prevention. A key part of their work has been meeting one-on-one with pediatricians to support their efforts to get unvaccinated children caught up on their shots.

"As it has done from the start, NYSDOH will continue to appropriately and effectively monitor spread, assess polio’s threat, communicate with providers, conduct education outreach, and support driving immunizations − and all work led and driven on the ground, by local counties − to protect New Yorkers against paralytic disease," Fuld said.

Meanwhile, county officials report, as of Monday, 10,992 doses of polio vaccine have been given to Rockland residents since virus was detected there. Vaccination clinics are ongoing.

The county health department has ensured the vaccine's availability to urgent care clinics and federally qualified health centers in the community, said Rockland spokesperson Beth Cefalu.

Measles outbreak blamed on state

The special CDC team had been in Rockland during the 2018-2019 measles outbreak, as well.

On Tuesday, Day also slammed the state health department for that outbreak, which that went on for 51 weeks in Rockland. "This county already dealt with a measles outbreak in 2018 due to a failure of NYSDOH to properly do their job and we refuse to sit back and watch history repeat itself."

In the wake of the measles outbreak, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that scrapped religious exemptions for public- and private-school childhood vaccinations.

Day had advocated for that change, joining Democratic lawmakers in Albany to rally for legislation.

Now many vaccines, including polio and MMR, are mandatory for school attendance unless children have a medical exemption.

The CDC and WHO recently issued a report on the risk of measles spread, reporting almost 40 million children worldwide missed doses of the measles vaccine in 2021 and were susceptible to the quickly spreading virus. Indeed, the numbers already hinted at the risk. According to an earlier WHO and UNICEF report, worldwide measles cases jumped 79% in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same time period in 2021.

The CDC called the situation grave.

An outbreak in Mumbai, India has killed 14 children and the CDC has sent a response team to Columbus, Ohio, for a measles outbreak there.

New York health officials said this week there had been no reported measles cases in the state.

Meanwhile, no extra MMR clinics are planned in Rockland, a spokesperson said, but those who need access to vaccinations can call the county's clinic for an appointment at  845-364-2520 or 2497.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland. 

Click here for her latest stories.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Polio in Rockland: Vaccination records audit sparks dispute