Welcome to You Op to Know, The Daily Orange Opinion section’s weekly podcast.  

This week, Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and Liberal columnist Brittany Zelada discuss New York’s new measures to combat the anti-vaccination movement. =

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to submit a letter to the editor at opinion@dailyorange.com.

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• Anti-vax legislation combats a growing threat to public health safety

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TRANSCRIPT

SESSA: Welcome to this week’s edition of You Op To Know, The Daily Orange’s Opinion section podcast. I’m Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and this week I’m joined by Liberal columnist Brittany Zelada. Tonight we’re going to talk about some new measures the state has proposed to address the anti-vaccination movement. Let’s start with the basics. What is that movement about and how has it gained so much popularity?

ZELADA: So, the anti-vax movement, in essence, is the anti-vaccination movement which is, pretty much, people who are against vaccines for various reasons, whether that be because they think vaccinations cause Autism or Alzheimer’s or, basically, or religious purposes as well. So, pretty much, all of those combined or pretty much embodied in the anti-vax movement. And, from what I got from writing the article and the research, the anti-vax movement is pretty much a social media movement. So, pretty much, their information that they justify to not have vaccinations or get their kids vaccinated, is through majority Facebook.

SESSA: What sort of measures have lawmakers proposed? What sorts of things would legislation tackle?

ZELADA: Currently, New York state is proposing a vaccination law that allows minors, 14 and up, to get vaccinated without parental consent, which comes as a reflection of the Lindenberger testimony upon Congress because he got vaccinated without his parents’ consent, which kind of says something about more minors who are probably in a similar sense of not being able to consent to having vaccinations, but they really want to for their own well-being.

SESSA: Some Democratic lawmakers, especially, have proposed ending religious exemptions that allow certain people to not have to get state-mandated vaccines based on faith. That’s especially controversial. What do you think about it?

ZELADA: It is controversial because, you know, every person in this country has their right to, you know, have, observe their religious purposes and have that right be enacted in this country. And it is a little controversial. But when it comes to overall health and public safety, I feel like those loopholes have to be more regulated, more, having more intake of a medical practitioner, rather than just a legislative. Because I feel like the legislative part, and also the health part, have to be combined in order to, you know, kind of resolve that loophole. Because, as we’ve seen with the county in New York state, it’s under a state of emergency currently because of Measles. So, and also, the majority of the legislators are moving toward banning those who are unvaccinated.

SESSA: Cool. Thanks for joining us. And as always, if you have any comments or questions, or you want to send us a letter, you can email us at opinion@dailyorange.com. We’ll talk to you next week!

Published on April 1, 2019 at 8:09 pm

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3