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

Rockland County Executive Ed Day sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting the federal government mandate foreign visitors to the U.S. and migrants show they have been vaccinated against polio, measles and other illnesses.

The request was made after a case of paralytic polio was detected in the county, and as local wastewater samples continue to show the highly contagious virus is circulating in Rockland and other counties.

U.S. law already mandates a full array of vaccines for immigration applicants. Proof of vaccination has to be shown, or the shots given during a mandatory medical exam for immigration applicants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2019, amid a measles outbreak in the county, the Republican county executive wrote a similar letter to then-President Donald Trump. The measles outbreak ultimately sickened 312 people, mostly children.

Day said both the current circulation of polio and the 2018-2019 measles outbreak could be linked to people coming here from outside the U.S.

In the case of the measles, the outbreak in Rockland was traced to several travelers who had been exposed overseas and brought the virus here.

The young man who contracted polio had not traveled outside the U.S. But the strain of the virus, health officials say, shows he likely caught it from someone who had come from another country where old-fashioned oral polio vaccines are still used. The U.S. has used inactive polio vaccinations for more than two decades.

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The Rockland man, whose leg paralysis is believed to be permanent, had never been vaccinated against polio.

"The United States now joins a list of 34 countries where circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus has been identified, which only occurs when local immunity to poliovirus is low," Day wrote the president. Rockland's overall polio vaccination rate for babies ages 2 and under is low compared to the state's: 60% to 79%. In one Rockland ZIP code, the polio vaccination rate was just 37.3% for babies age 2 and younger; countywide the polio vaccination rate hovers just above 60%.

That local vulnerability, Day said, "underscores exactly why we must ensure that visitors and migrants coming here are vaccinated, to prevent an issue like this from reoccurring."

Day said that visitors should have to show vaccination records for immunizations commonly given in childhood, including polio, MMR, or measles, mumps and rubella; and tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough. Day said the list should reflect recommendations of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP.

These guidelines are also followed by New York State Department of Education for school vaccination requirements.

Day cites the U.S. requirement that international air travelers show proof of COVID vaccination, and in some cases a negative COVID test. "This clearly shows the federal government has the capacity to both require and enforce that all visitors show proof of recommended immunizations for the general U.S. population."

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

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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Vaccinations for polio, measles should be required of visitors: Ed Day