April 26–May 2, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
READY
TO START
YOUR YOGA
JOURNEY?
Come join us at Llamaste Yoga Center
& Boutique in DUMBO, Brooklyn!
We offer semi-private classes daily to
fit your schedule. All levels and all ages
are welcome! Check out our website for
our current class schedule and have a
look at our eco-friendly and sustainable
yoga gear and apparel. Llamaste!
$10 OFF YOUR FIRST CLASS
when you mention this ad
www.llamaste.com
929.266.6737
145 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY
Photo: Meghann Padgett
GERM POLICE!
City disease detectives issue violations
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
They’re feeling fined.
Municipal virus investigators
are on the prowl for unvaccinated
Williamsburg residents
amid a growing measles
outbreak affecting Brooklyn’s
Orthodox Jewish community,
and the city sickness sleuths
have already slapped three
parents with summonses for
allegedly failing to get their
kids inoculated, according to
the Department of Health.
The summonses were issued
after Mayor Bill de Blasio
and city Health Commissioner
Dr. Oxiris Barbot
issued an emergency health
declaration on April 9 mandating
residents of four Williamsburg
zip codes — 11205,
11206, 11211, and 11249 —
get their shots of the MMR
vaccine, or else face justice at
the hands of the Department
of Health’s dogged “disease
detectives.”
The investigators tracked
down the allegedly unvaccinated
kids amid some gumshoe
investigative work into
the outbreak that’s afflicted
a whopping 329 people — including
44 additional cases
since last week’s emergency
order, interviewing measles
patients to identify their contacts,
before tracking them
down and verifying their inoculations
are up to date.
Parents of the three unvaccinated
kids must appear at
a hearing, where they’ll be
slapped with $1,000 fines if
the violation is upheld.
The city announced the violations
the same week that
five Williamsburg residents
sued the city for the right to not
vaccinated their kids, claiming
the scale of the measles
outbreak does not warrant the
city overruling their religious
objection to the shots.
And the city is making
good on de Blasio’s promise
to shut down schools
that violated the Health Department’s
February exclusion
order forbidding unvaccinated
kids from attending
class, issuing closure orders
to four Williamsburg yeshivas,
included among a total
23 area academies that have
received notices of violation
for admitting students
without inoculations.
The city allowed another
school, the United Talmudical
Academy, to reopen after
ordering it closed April 16 for
refusing to provide officials
access to vaccination and attendance
records.
Officials traced the bor-
ough’s measles outbreak to a
Brooklyn resident traveling
from Israel — home to another
outbreak of the disease
— in October, and so far 25
people have been hospitalized
for measles, including six people
who required intensive care,
according to Barbot.
There have been no fatalities
so far, according to the
Health Department.
This is the largest outbreak
that New York City
has experienced since 1991,
according to Barbot, and its
spread represents a major
spike over the two infections
that plagued New Yorkers
in 2017.
The highly contagious
airborne pathogen produces
symptoms including fever,
cough, and a runny nose, and
can cause diarrhea, ear infection,
pneumonia, encephalitis,
and death — with about
one out of every 1,367 kids
infected dying due to complications,
according to the
Department, which also says
symptoms can appear from
seven to 21 days following
exposure.
Legacies of the new world
Sunset Park celebrates native cultures on Earth Day
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Hundreds of Earth Day revelers
gathered at Sunset Park
to celebrate Native American
culture on Saturday as
tribes representing cultures
from across the new world
demonstrated the songs and
dances of their people.
“It went very well,” said
Kamu Morales, First Grandfather
of the Taino Council
Guatu-Ma-cu A Boriken, a
tribe hailing from modern
Puerto Rico.
The celebration is organized
by the Redhawk Native American
Arts Council, a non-forprofit
organization dedicated
to educating the public on Native
American heritage which
represents tribes from North,
South, and Central America,
along with Polynesian and Caribbean
cultures.
Morales demonstrated various
dances and musical in-
Photo by Steve Solomonson
Native American performers treated locals to a tribal dance for the Earth Day
celebration at the Sunset Park Recreation Center on April 20.
struments traditional to Taino
culture, including the wamo,
a conch shell used as a horn,
and the mayohuacan, a hollowed
out log used as a percussion
instrument.
The performers were joined
by vendors selling hand-made
goods, including Jassier Cabrera,
who sold jackets that
his grandfather, an expert
weaver, made.
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.llamaste.com
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.llamaste.com