New York State Senate OKs vaccine bills in response to federal changes

ALBANY — The State Senate passed a package of bills related to vaccines on Wednesday in response to changes in the federal vaccination schedule in January.

The package is among a slew of bills New York Democrats have proposed this legislative session on issues ranging from elections to immigration since President Donald Trump took office.

Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said the legislative vaccine package was about showing the state’s support for public health and medical professionals.

"We're strengthening our health care systems," she said. "We're standing with our medical professionals, and we're reaffirming that in New York, public health comes first."

The package now goes to the Assembly.

Under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11.

The list of vaccines no longer recommended by the federal government includes the hepatitis B vaccine, which New York requires for children to attend day care, pre-K and school.

One bill, sponsored by Sen. Shelley Mayer (D- Yonkers), would allow the state Department of Health to develop its own vaccine schedule based on "medically accepted science and medical standards" of national health organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, rather relying solely on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The bill passed 39-21.

"We're taking them out as being the only thing in town," Mayer said.

Mayer mentioned a recent article in The New York Times on the spread of measles among unvaccinated children in South Carolina as a potential outcome of allowing vaccination rates to fall.

"This is real. This is imminent, and New York cannot and should not be part of that story," she said.

Two other bills would expand the ranks of medical professionals who can administer vaccines to include medical assistants and some nursing students. Other bills would require insurance providers to expand coverage and reimbursements for vaccines and immunizations.

A spokesman for Assembly Democrats said they would review the bills.

During opening remarks at the start of this year’s legislative session, Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said the state must do more to protect vaccine research and stand by medical professionals seeking to educate families on the importance of vaccinations.