Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at measles outbreaks and whether you need another shot. We’ll also get details on the State of the City address by the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams.
Measles cases are surging in rural West Texas, raising concerns about this highly contagious virus. Two unrelated cases have been reported in New York City this year, and last week state and city health officials in New York issued a health advisory about measles.
Why? “The more cases you have, the more cases you’re going to get,” said Dr. James McDonald, the state health commissioner, adding that the time lag between when someone is exposed and when symptoms develop means “this is going to keep going.” Measles is so contagious that someone can contract it just by going into a room that an infected person had been in two hours earlier, the state Health Department said.
Vaccination has long been the most effective way to combat measles, and most of the people who have come down with it were unvaccinated. The Texas Department of State Health Services said on Tuesday that only five of the 159 cases had been vaccinated; 80 had not been vaccinated; and the status of the others was not known. In New Jersey, where three cases were reported last week in Bergen County, none had been vaccinated.
Last week Texas reported the first measles death in the United States since 2015, and nine people in a nearby county in New Mexico have also been diagnosed with measles. Nearly 80 cases have been reported in Canada, including 55 in Ontario, the province that shares a 445-mile border with New York.
Public health officials say that as outbreaks continue, you should check your vaccination record — and consider getting another shot if you have had only one.
You can get a measles vaccine at many places in New York City. Most pediatricians offer the measles vaccine in a combination with mumps and rubella immunization known as M.M.R. The city Health Department’s NYC Health Map lists more than 150 community health centers and pharmacies that administer the M.M.R. vaccine. Some require appointments, some do not. Some accept Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance; some do not. The health map has details.
How many shots?
If you received two doses at some point — as a child, or later — you are considered fully vaccinated.
But between 1968 and 1989, the Centers for Disease Control (as the agency was then known) recommended only one shot. The agency then changed its guidance to two shots, which are roughly 97 percent effective. That means that many people who were children from the late 1960s to the late 1980s — and are now pushing 40, 50 or 60 — may wonder about getting another dose.
“We say in most cases, one dose is OK,” said Dr. Michelle Morse, the city’s acting health commissioner, “but this is where I would say you should consult with your physician.”
Dr. Roy Gulick, the chief of infectious disease at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell, said that with one shot, there is “a 90 percent chance that you are immune.”
“Anyone who doesn’t know that they got two doses should go ahead and get a second dose,” he said. “There’s no downside to getting a second dose.” You can also get a blood test to assess your antibodies against measles.
The C.D.C. says that if you were born before 1957, you are most likely protected against measles, which circulated widely before the measles vaccine was approved in the early 1960s. People who have had measles nearly always have lifetime immunity.
Herd immunity?
Nearly 650 people got sick in a measles outbreak in New York City in 2018 and 2019. It began after an unvaccinated child returned to New York from Israel and developed a rash — a symptom of measles — nine days after landing. The majority of people who came down with measles were part of the Orthodox Jewish community and lived in the Williamsburg or Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.
Last year 14 cases of measles were reported in the city.
Dr. Morse said she was worried because the childhood vaccination rate in the city was lower than during the outbreak in 2018 and 2019.
Some 98 percent of children in New York City have received two doses of the vaccine by the time they reach kindergarten, where M.M.R. vaccination is required for entry in the public school system, though there are some exemptions. But only 81 percent of children in the city between the ages of 24 months and 35 months have received one dose, as recommended for that age bracket. The Bronx had the most children who had been vaccinated; Staten Island had the fewest.
Experts say that at least 95 percent of a community must be vaccinated for herd immunity, which can block an outbreak. But across the state, Dr. McDonald said, the vaccination rate for kindergartners was “only around 90 percent.”
“We aren’t achieving herd immunity here,” he said.
Weather
Expect rain throughout the day. Temperature will reach into the high 50s. In the evening, the rain will continue, with a possible thunderstorm. Temperature will dip to the mid-40s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended for Ash Wednesday.
The latest New York news
An attack on Trump in a preview of a potential run for mayor
The annual State of the City address by Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, is usually a blueprint for the Council’s agenda. Her speech on Tuesday was different — a potential preview of a run for mayor.
Adams formed a campaign committee last week. She would face an uphill battle if she runs, in part because the primary is only 112 days away and in part because former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is now a candidate.
But my colleague Jeffery C. Mays writes that even if she sits out the race for mayor, her State of the City address carries unusual weight this year because Mayor Eric Adams’s influence has slipped in the months since he was indicted on corruption charges.
The speaker, who is not related to the mayor, criticized President Trump throughout her speech. She said he was “willing to burn everything in his way” for power and was on a “cruel crusade against immigrant families.”
These were among her proposals:
METROPOLITAN diary
Scraping By
Dear Diary:
It was the first super-cold morning of winter that year and my little car, parked on the street near my West Village apartment, was all iced up. Having recently moved from Florida, I didn’t have an ice scraper.
I decided to start my car, set the heat and defroster on high, and wipe the ice off the windshield and the other windows with my gloved hands.
As I got out of my car to begin, a woman walked up to the car parked just in front of mine. After starting it up, she got out and began to clean the windows with a big plastic scraper.
“After you’re done, could I borrow your scraper for a few minutes?” I asked.
She stopped her scraping, looked at me and then looked at my car.
“I’ll scrape it for you,” she said.
“Shouldn’t I scrape yours for you?” I offered. “Then I could scrape mine?”
She gave me a look.
“Get back in your car,” she said.
I did as I was told.
She came over and scraped off every window meticulously. When she was done, she went back and continued to scrape off her car.
I waved a big “thank you” as I pulled out, but I don’t think she saw me.
— Doug Sylver
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.