‘Flexibility’ sought with vaccine schedule

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and state Sen. Jen Metzger urged more flexibility for an ongoing schedule for schoolchildren vaccinations.

The ongoing schedule for schoolchildren vaccinations has been given more “flexibility” after two area state lawmakers urged that flexibility to occur with the health department.

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and state Sen. Jen Metzger, D-Rosendale, say they had urged more flexibility due to a law passed earlier this year that repealed the religious exemption for legally required vaccinations of children entering school.

The lawmakers sent their letter to Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the state Department of Health.

“The law requires that children who previously had not been vaccinated receive a series of firstdose vaccinations prior to attending school, and have age-appropriate followup,” the lawmakers wrote in their July letter to the health department. “We are writing to ask that you use your authority to provide flexibility in the vaccination schedule in order to maximize the number of compliant families.”

“Rather than complying with the new legislation, some constituents of ours are choosing to withdraw their children from school, undermining the very purpose of the legislation,” the lawmakers wrote. “While some of these parents will refuse to vaccinate under any conditions, many parents have reached out to our offices and to local school administrators explaining that they are willing to comply but are intending to withdraw their children from school due to the difficulty of complying with the short timeframe for receiving all of the first doses of immunizations.”

Last week, Cahill and Metzger announced that action was taken by the health department.

“Though children must receive the first dose of immunizations to enroll in school, this extension allows them to remain “inprocess” with the vaccination schedule,” Cahill said in a press release. “It is my hope that this will prevent students from falling out of the immunization process due to time constraints on when they can receive their next dose (extended 14 days) and lessen the burden of caregivers scheduling vaccination appointments, dependent on the availability of their physicians.”

Metzger felt similarly. “I am glad that Commissioner Zucker and the Department of Health have responded positively to our request to add flexibility in the vaccination scheduling and allow for greater compliance,” said Senator Jen Metzger. “The two-week extension to the allowable interval period does not pose any public health risks, and enables more children to be vaccinated and enrolled in school, which is our ultimate goal.”