Dean Anthony Crowell and Professor Ross Sandler welcomed Dr. Barbot and congratulated her on controlling the measles outbreak.

Dr. Barbot talked about her tenure and experience as Commissioner in invoking NYC's police powers to mandate MMR vaccines to all non-immune residents over the age of 6 months in 4 Brooklyn zip codes. The order threatened civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance. (The order lasted until September 3, 2019. While we are unaware of anyone being subjected to imprisonment, which the order specifically permitted, many people were ordered to pay $1000 fines for non-compliance.) The talk was recorded by one of the attendees, Joseph Friendly.

Dr. Barbot said that while she holds a "fundamental belief in individual rights," she also "holds people accountable for the greater good." She considers the "anti-vaccine movement" to be sowing "misinformation, lies and fear." She was dismayed to learn of "measles parties" in March 2019, while the outbreak continued. She noted that "We live in a different world today," where children are surviving cancer and living with compromised immune systems; they cannot withstand measles. She said emphatically, "practices of the past CANNOT apply to the present," i.e. children can no longer remain unvaccinated or be allowed to get measles. She quoted the mortality rate from measles as 1 per 1,000. (Other sources, including the CDC, refer to a mortality rate of 1 in 10,000.) Fearing deaths from measles, she said that New York City "couldn't take the risk." She asserted that measles is "not as benign as anti-vaxxers would have you believe." Drastic action was required, she said.