LIVE: NY Governor Hochul Provides Updates on Statewide Response to Measles

For the 57th Governor of New York, Governor Kathy Hochul. Good afternoon. When I first took office as governor, New York was weathering one of the most severe public health crises in our lifetimes. COVID was in every corner of the state. Omicron was surging. We listened to the scientists, the experts, and we put shots in arms. And together we conquered the pandemic and saved countless lives. Much of that work was done because of the incredible, dedicated, underappreciated by many, the staff here at Wadsworth. And I want to thank them always for being on the front line during those dark, dark days and the sleepless nights and long, long months of research and making sure we had supply of our vaccinations, but also what they're doing now. And I want to thank especially Dr. Leonard Perusky, our director, and I want to recognize him for leading an incredible team here as well. I'm also joined by Dr. McDonald, our commissioner of health. I'll be introducing him momentarily, and Catherine Garcia, head of state operations. We're here today at Wadsworth because since the beginning of the year, New York has now reported four individual cases of measles. Now, this cannot be classified as an outbreak. We, we know how to handle this. We do not have another pandemic on our hands, but at this early stage, I thought it was important to sound the alarm to provide New Yorkers information and share our plan for stopping the spread of this disease any further. First, here are the facts. As I said, we have four individual cases that we believe are unrelated, three in New York City, one in Suffolk County. Now, these numbers themselves are not inherently a cause for concern. And for example, in 2024, we had 15 cases, but nationwide we're seeing very concerning trends, 350 measles cases around the country. 81% right now are part of an outbreak in West Texas. And of those sick with West Texas, three quarters are unvaccinated. And also of great concern to us as a border state to Canada, there are 350 cases reported since last fall in Ontario, literally right across the border from our state. So the good news is we're alert, we're vigilant, we're watching, but also we have the power to stop any outbreak. It rests in our hands. Now the measles vaccine is remarkably effective. According to the CDC, two doses of the MMR vaccine have a 97% effective rate. And this is available to all. Now children get the shots, but also if you're not sure if you had a shot when you were a child, you should see your doctor. Make sure that there's no danger in talking to your doctor about possibly getting immunized once again. And if you have your vaccination, the overwhelming evidence is that you'll be safe. It's the only thing to do. It's smart, it's responsible for young people, the elderly, the immunocompromised. Those are especially vulnerable individuals. So it's also not just protecting yourself, similar to the COVID vaccine, it's about protecting your community. And this is what the doctor will be speaking about momentarily as well. I know vaccinations have for some reason become a very divisive topic in recent years. It pains me to think that in the year 2025, that we're still debating whether vaccinations are safe, when in fact the scientific evidence is overwhelming. I want to speak directly to the leaders of our state, our clergy, the activists, the mentors, those who are looked up to, the pillars of our communities, who are really the ones who are the honest brokers, the ones who speak truth and people listen. I want them to help us take on this threat by helping get more information about vaccinations and literally getting shots in arms. Help us encourage everyday New Yorkers who want only the best for their families to get the vaccination because there are numbers that are still deeply troubling. I look at some, I look at the numbers of our state. Orange County, 64.9% are vaccinated. Yates County, only 55.8% are vaccinated. Now the majority overall, 81% for the state of New York, that's a good number. It should be a higher number because otherwise, again, we are exposed. West Texas may seem like a long way off. Ontario is just across the border and that is what people need to be aware of and why we're being so vigilant at this time. But I know a little bit about this because as a mom, I took my kids to those shots. I listened to them cry but knew it was very, very important for their long-term health and that's why we do what we do, looking out for our most precious, the most precious individuals in our world to us who are our children. And I want to make sure that people know that when wrong information is being disseminated, that the truth tellers stand up and say no, that is not accurate. Now our concern also lies with the fact that the Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the nation's leading vaccination skeptic. He's been quoted as saying that cod liver oil has been very getting, very good results for people who are sick with measles. Do you agree with that, Dr. McDonald? No, it's terrible. All right, it's terrible. You heard it from Dr. McDonald. It is terrible. That is wrong. Cod liver oil will not protect you from measles. It's baseless. It's irresponsible and puts lives at risk. He also said the decision to vaccinate is a personal one. A personal decision is what are you going to do tonight for dinner? What are your weekend plans? What's for lunch? Those are personal decisions. But when it comes to the overall health of our state and the people we love, it's much larger than a personal decision. Let me end with this. We've had measles available since 1963. The vaccination has been determined to have saved 60 million lives over the last 20 years alone. 60 million lives. That's extraordinary. We cannot go backwards in this time of fear and disinformation. It'll only wreak havoc on our state. So I'm encouraging everyone, let's go forward together into an era where we actually respect the doctors and the researchers and scientific advancement. So no child ever has to suffer the effects of a 104 degree fever or the pain of a burning rash. We can make our society free, free from this, or at least our state. That's what I'm calling on all New Yorkers. If you've not been vaccinated, your child's not vaccinated, please step up and get it done. Adults, if you're not sure, there's no harm in asking again. And for anyone looking for more information, we ask you to visit our website, ny.gov slash measles. Now I'd like to invite Commissioner McDonald to speak about his experience as a doctor. Thanks, Governor Hochul, and welcome everyone to one of our state health labs. It's good to have you here at Wadsworth. Thanks Dr. Peruski for making us feel so welcome. I just want to talk a little bit about immunization rates first. I want to just put a little bit of specificity around our numbers in New York state. So when you look at one of the metrics I look at is what percentage of children do I have immunized under the age of two? The number I want to see is over 95%. What I have in New York state right now is 81.4%. What we see in New York, people are getting their vaccine eventually. So by kindergarten, I need you to have two doses, and then I get up to over 90%. Still not over the 95% number I'm looking for. One of the things Governor Hochul talked about though is I have certain regions of the state where the vaccine reluctance is more of a concern than others. And I say reluctance intentionally. I think there's a lot of reasons why people choose not to get a vaccine. But really, I think one of the things to underscore is the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, the one we use right now, that's been around since 1971. That's 54 years for those of you who can do the math really quick in your head. And the original measles vaccine has been around since 1963. A very safe vaccine. I've been a pediatrician for over 35 years. I still haven't had a parent call me after the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine with a serious concern. And I've personally administered over tens of thousands of doses of vaccine. So I know what the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine does, it protects children from measles. I want to talk a little bit though about the clinical presentation of measles. It's very likely no one in this room has ever seen anyone with measles, except for me. So I thought I'd just share with you how measles usually presents. The first couple of days, and I just want to keep this in mind, you don't show your measles symptoms until about seven to 14 days after you're exposed. Just keep in mind, by the way, if in a room like this, if someone had measles and you guys weren't vaccinated, everybody would get measles. It's that contagious, right? Not even just everybody in the room, but anybody who walked in the room for the next hour and a half. I just want to underscore how contagious measles is. So the way the clinical presentation starts is someone starts with a cough, runny nose, runny eyes, and a fever. So it starts to look like a common cold at that point. Although the fever can get up to 105, 104. So that's a little different than most colds, right? Then what happens next a couple of days later is you get these little spots inside your mouth called coplic spots. And coplic spots are unique to measles. They see them in no other disease. And then the telltale rash of measles appears. It's kind of this flat red rash and then red bumps appear. It starts on the head, goes down the trunk and over to the extremities. So that's what happens with measles. Now, keep in mind, people are most contagious with measles four days before they get the rash and four days after they've had the rash. A couple of things about measles. It's not a harmless childhood infection. That's really not true. If you look at the numbers on the US outbreak right now, keep in mind 350 cases in the United States right now, that's a lot. But you're seeing about one in five or 20% end up in the hospital. That means they were sick enough to end up in a hospital. That's a number that should bother everybody. That's a lot of people ending up in the hospital. Keep in mind, 75% of the people who are getting measles in the United States are under 19 years old. So we're talking about children. The most common complication of measles is pneumonia, an infection in your lungs. Less common but more serious is encephalitis. Encephalitis is an infection around your brain. So that's very serious as well. One of the things that happens with measles, by the way, too, which doesn't happen with other diseases, this has only been learned in the last decade or so, is something called measles immune amnesia. In other words, if you get measles for the next couple of weeks, couple of months or a year, depending on who you are in your immune system, your immune system forgets how to fight other infections. So you're more susceptible to other infections. And so that's just one of the reasons why I make sure it's really clear. Measles is not a harmless childhood infection. Measles is a serious disease and it can be prevented. So I want to talk a little bit more about what we're doing as New York State Department of Health about this. So February 26th, we sent out a provider advisory to all the local health departments, all the healthcare providers in New York State. And here's what we said. Here's what the situation is in the United States with measles. We're reminding people, what does measles look like? Keep in mind, most physicians have never seen a patient with measles. They've just learned about it from books. And then we also remind people, how do you get the specimen to test for measles? Because as a doctor, if you don't do something often, you don't always remember how to get the test. So how do we get the specimen and where it needs to go to? And I think it's important that people understand we interact with local health departments and healthcare providers a lot, their health advisories a lot. We're their expert and we're making sure they're your expert. Another thing we did is we made a one minute public service announcement. What I did is I spoke directly to individuals. It's circulating right now in social media, just explaining to people what measles is, why the vaccine is so important. And just an example of one of the things we do, we interact all year long with local health departments and other experts. But yesterday, for example, I was in Saratoga. We had the statewide immunization meeting where all local health departments were convened. And we talked not just about measles, but all vaccine preventable diseases, just to get new ideas and new strides about how to really address vaccine hesitancy, but just as importantly to address vaccine confidence and make sure we understand that people can show up vaccine confidence. One of the things I really thought that was great that Governor Hochul said, I think it's so important is, it's really important for community leaders to be ambassadors for immunizations. I've been a pediatrician for 35 years. I have the safest, most effective vaccines I've ever seen in my career. I want everyone to be prevented from getting these diseases. And I want to underscore how effective they are. The measles, bumps, and rubella vaccine, 97% effective. We can achieve herd immunity. And one of the things I want to close with is this disease should be eliminated, not just in the United States, but across the globe. We could actually eradicate measles across the globe. It's not for want of technology. It's just for want of people, not just in New York, not just the United States, but across the globe availing themselves to the vaccine. Fortunately in New York state, in the United States, there's no shortage of vaccine, plenty available. Anybody can get it who wants it. And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to the governor. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. McDonald. Always reminded me why I selected you as my commissioner of health. You just have a down to earth, natural way of communicating that is so relatable. That is one of your greatest strengths. And you always take it back to your days as a pediatrician, which is so valuable. Again, having seen measles cases, unlike many people in the profession, certainly gives us an advantage here in the state. So thank you for all you do and happy to take any on topic questions. Governor, the patients in New York state who have been diagnosed, did they travel elsewhere or did others from other places in the country visit them? Do you have the data? Yeah, we have that. So that's a great question, right? Because one of the things you're asking is, is it imported, right? And so of the four cases, three were imported. In other words, travel associated cases. The other one we don't have a source for. But one of the things that's important to understand is right now we haven't seen any secondary cases from measles. And I want to underscore, that's not an accident. That's because local health departments do the hard work of doing informing everyone, finding out who's a contact. And one of the things you can do for someone if you've been exposed to measles, we can give you post-exposure prophylaxis. In other words, immune globulin, if you haven't had the vaccine. But I need people to really, I don't want to keep driving this point home, my friends, but it's the main point. I have a safe and effective vaccine. It's been around since 1971. Best protection available. Please don't get lost in this. And here's the little thing. Some of you look like you might've been born before 1957. I won't tell you who. But if you've been born before 1957, you're considered measles immune. If you've been born after 1957, you need two doses. So we give now one dose when you're 12 to 15 months old, and the second dose when you're going to kindergarten, right? But if you're an adult and you haven't had two doses, don't get blood titers to see if you're immune. Just ask your doctor for the second dose of measles, mumps, or umbrella vaccine. Thank you. If parents suspect that their child might be infected, would it be irresponsible? Would it put others at risk to take that child to the ER? So if you suspect your child has measles, what you want to do is call your doctor first. Because what a lot of doctors just have a way to enter the office so you can be seen here, right? And then you can see it privately. When you go to the emergency department, what you end up doing is exposing everyone else in the emergency department. Remember how I gave you the illustration of this room? If someone had measles, we all weren't immunized, everybody would be infected, right? So if you go to the emergency department, you're exposing everyone to your case of measles. Now, when you think of that waiting room in the emergency department, you don't know who's had the measles vaccine, and you also don't know, more importantly, who's got a compromised immune system. There's a reason why they're called emergency departments. Everybody goes there, right? So you really don't want to go to the emergency department unless it's really an emergency. And even then, you want to call ahead and let them know you're coming because they usually have a way for you to enter there. So I think it's important to be very thoughtful about how you're going to access healthcare. Okay. Raghav? For the governor, you mentioned the misinformation and some of the vaccine skepticism that's been coming from the White House and the cabinet. Is it your responsibility and that of other governors to sort of push back on that rhetoric directly with these folks? We're talking RFK Jr., we're talking the president. How do you see yourself starting those conversations, and have you had any of those conversations with the president and with other members of this cabinet on this public health issue? I'm doing what I need to do, which is communicate directly with the people of New York today and through our other channels and to let them know that they're being lied to. I can say that clearly, but what's more important is for trusted individuals in the community, the clergy, the community leaders, the people that they trust also to be reinforcing this, that don't believe it just because you saw it on social media. It does not make it true. Stick with the doctors, stick with the facts. So pushing back on Washington to try to convince Secretary Robert Kennedy that he's wrong is probably a waste of time. I mean, he's had a lifetime of spewing these lies. I don't think that me telling him he's wrong is going to change it. I have to be the truth teller to the people of this state, and that's the role I'm playing right now. And a quick follow-up. Is there any consideration of restrictions on the states, Texas, I think New Mexico, maybe Canada, that you're considering at all to try to limit the import of this? We are concerned about the numbers in Ontario right now, but I don't know that we've entertained restrictions on that. Or Catherine, have we... No, not at this time. There'll be a threshold number that raises the red flag, correct? Yeah. Best thing to do is just get vaccinated, then we don't have to worry about travel advisories, my friends. Yeah. Get vaccinated, then you don't have to worry about it. Go anywhere you want. Over here in the back. Do we know if these four cases were vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals? I know the answer to that. I bet you do. That's why you're here. They were not vaccinated. And there's no epidemiologic link between the four. And we're talking about data for 2025. So all the March right now, they're not all happening right now. They're all happened. Any other on-topic questions? John. Hi. I'm curious, is this a situation where, Commissioner, where you would recommend masking in public? No. What I recommend everybody do is make sure you have two doses of measles, mumps, or umbrella vaccine, folks. The technology exists. It's proven. It's been around a long time. I don't want to be ambiguous about this at all. The measles, mumps, umbrella vaccine, it's the best protection. Anything else you're hearing from anybody else is just noise. Really, really want to make sure that's really clear. Thank you. Governor, as a follow-up to that, lawmakers have said that you're pushing some sort of mask restrictions. That is too far off-topic. That's very much on-topic, is it not? I mean, are there health- Well, we're talking about measles here today. No, there's absolutely, I have said before that I support some variation of restrictions on the use of masks, except for medical and religious reasons. Masks used in the commission of a crime are deeply troubling to me. Think about a bank robber, walks in, their face is covered. Someone assaults someone on the subway, they can get away with it, despite the fact that we have cameras, because they are masked. And so this is something that, as I'm protecting public safety, is very much top of mind. So we're having conversations, we'll see how it goes. Austin? To what extent should we expect these cases to go up in 2025? I'm nervous about Ontario being so close to us, to be honest with you. I'm from that area. It's not a foreign country to people in western New York. It is where you go for dinner and shopping back and forth across the border, sports events, et cetera. And those are large gatherings. So that's my concern right now, that that could spike. For this early in the year, we're on track to be higher than last year, for sure, at this rate. But we're not seeing a trend out of Ontario, but we're watching it closely, right? The best way to prevent cases from going up in New York is everybody getting vaccinated, folks. And I want to answer that specifically. If you import a case into New York state, depends on which county. If you look at some of our counties, they're much higher risk than because if your immunization rates are low, then that county is much higher risk. When I look at Erie County, it's 87.7% for people under two. It's not over 95%. So part of what I want to be really, really clear about is this doesn't have to be a risk at all to see increased cases. And I think with Ontario, we're talking to them, working with them. They're lovely people, but it's really getting back to, we need herd immunity. Herd immunity is a little over 95%. And I think that's extremely achievable. No shortage of vaccine, very available to everybody. Thank you. Anything else on topic, Jack? Yeah, I'm just curious, going back to what we were talking about in the beginning, is there any chance of separating this out from being a political issue? As somebody who millions of New Yorkers associate with their political aggravations, how do you decouple vaccines from politics at this point? I have one of the most credible people to speak on this with great authority that you could ever find. I hope people will separate politics. I'm not here to make a political statement. I'm here to save people's lives. That's my number one job as the governor of New York, is to protect the people of the state. This is one way I'm doing this to protect the people of the state, to sound the alarm that if you are not vaccinated, you and your loved ones are very exposed to a possibly deadly disease. But if people don't want to hear it from me, they should listen to Dr. McDonald. I've been doing this for 35 years. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate it.