In a move that’s sending ripples through public health circles, New Hampshire’s Republican-led legislature has passed a bill that could position the state as the first in the nation to remove polio and measles vaccine requirements for children enrolled in childcare.
The bill in question has already secured passage through New Hampshire’s House and is backed exclusively by Republican legislators. It seeks to abolish the necessity for parents to submit proof of polio and measles vaccinations when enrolling their children in childcare facilities. While many states offer religious exemptions to vaccine mandates, New Hampshire would be the sole state to lack such a law entirely.
Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, has displayed mixed responses to public health measures, having endorsed legislation that allowed individuals unvaccinated against COVID-19 access to public spaces and services in 2021. Yet, in the following year, he vetoed a bill prohibiting school-imposed mask mandates.
Mentioned in the conversation between According to S. Wesley Long, a pathology and genomic medicine professor at Houston Methodist Medical Center, and Julia Métraux, “Childhood vaccines have helped protect generations of Americans from potentially devastating vaccine-preventable diseases.” It’s worth noting that since the year 2000, measles vaccines alone are credited with saving over 55 million lives globally.
New Hampshire’s public health officials have sounded alarms, warning that changes to childcare vaccination rules could lead to a decrease in childhood immunizations and consequent outbreaks of preventable diseases. “Infectious diseases that were once eliminated from the U.S., such as measles and polio, are now making a comeback because of under-immunization,” stated Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist. He highlighted the recent resurgence of measles across the country and pointed to the lower-than-average vaccination rates among kindergartners in New Hampshire, which have dipped to the lowest in New England.
Despite these concerns, Republican Rep. Ross Berry, one of the bill’s sponsors and a childcare center operator, argued that the bill aims to remove “needless paperwork requirement” for childcare providers, without affecting the actual vaccination requirement. Health officials counter that without the documentation mandate, the vaccination requirements would be unenforceable and meaningless.
Relevant articles:
– New Hampshire’s GOP Is Taking a Stand—Against the Polio Vaccine: The Granite State could be the first to ditch polio and measles requirements for childcare.
– NH public health officials warn against changing child care vaccination rules, New Hampshire Public Radio, Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:54:00 GMT