GOP Rip Van Winkles
I was very pleased to read last Saturday’s My Turn entitled, “Protect our school vaccine requirements,” written by five local health care providers. They were protesting HB 1719 that would demand our state public health department follow the new CDC guidelines on hepatitis B vaccination of children, something I hope our public health officials and Governor Ayotte would not allow.
In their article, the providers quoted a house committee member as asking “What has changed about hepatitis B or the vaccine that caused the CDC to change guidance it has had for the past 35 years?” Also in the last few weeks there was a letter in the Monitor where the author encouraging readers to now faithfully follow all CDC guidelines as we have always done in the past.
It seems the committee member and the letter writer have not paid attention in the last year to all the unfortunate changes happening to the CDC under RFK, Jr’s leadership. Like Rip Van Winkle waking up after 20 years in Washington Irving’s 1819 short story, things have changed at the CDC, but not the virus or the vaccine. If they’ve not been asleep then I suspect they think that the general public has no knowledge, insights or awareness of what has happened. This Trump administration is making the CDC irrelevant, casting doubt on the proven importance of vaccines and immunizations in keeping our children and our communities safe.
Our New Hampshire public health leaders and the governor need to stand firm against HB 1719 if it passes for the health and safety of all.