Concord Hospital nurse Cathy McLeod prepares a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Memorial Building in Concord on Thursday. The first phase of distribution is going to healthcare workers. Photo Credit/Geoff Forester, Monitor staff
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CONCORD, NH – The Republican Party’s push to limit public vaccination will be heard in Concord on Wednesday, when a legislative committee will discuss three bills regarding vaccination, including one that would end mandates for schoolchildren in New Hampshire.
HB-1811, which would completely end mandatory vaccinations for children entering school or daycare facilities, proposes treating the Department of Health and Human Services’ vaccination guidelines as recommendations that “shall not be used to deny services or access.”
“The department and any political subdivision of the state of New Hampshire shall not require vaccinations under any circumstance,” the bill says in its current form.
Vaccines train the body’s natural immune system to recognize diseases and attack them early. New Hampshire required smallpox vaccinations in school in the late 1800s and now requires vaccinations for nine diseases. That list no longer includes smallpox, a deadly disease that was eliminated by global vaccination drives.
Robert Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump, has long argued that vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent. His appointment empowered vaccination opponents around the country, with Florida being the first state moving to end all school inoculation mandates.
The hearing on HB-1811 will be held by the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs committee at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, in Room 158 at Granite Place.
Scheduled for a 1 p.m. hearing in the same room is HB-1219, which would prevent foster homes from being required to give more vaccinations than schools. If both bills pass, foster parents could not count on children being vaccinated before coming to their home.
An 11 a.m. hearing is slated for HB-1022, which specifies the wording of the form parents must sign to receive a religious exemption from vaccine requirements for their children. The forms says the parent “sincerely holds religious beliefs” or follow practices that “dictate the refusal to accept the required vaccination(s).”
Religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements have been allowed for many years and have steadily increased. About 4.5% of kindergarteners received religious exemptions in New Hampshire last school year.
All three bills are sponsored mostly by Republicans.
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