Contrary to what its sponsor would have everyone believe, HB 1035 (relative to exemptions from school vaccines) is nothing more than an old anti-vaccination tactic that would bring back childhood diseases not prevalent in the Granite State for at least 50 to 60 years.
Also, there is nothing in what the sponsor calls ‘common sense’ about this scheme to undermine childhood vaccines that prevent the spread of contagious and dangerous diseases, such as measles, polio, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough and diphtheria.
It is a simple, but often-used ploy by the anti-vaxxers to weaken immunization practices by introducing a new term, exception or exemption into state law. Then they build upon it in future years with additional clauses that up-end years of healthy children, schools and local communities.
Really, New Hampshire legislators exploiting our children for their own political gain? Then it’s a shame how short memories are or how long inflicting pain and suffering to a new generation of our children will be tolerated. This is not the New Hampshire way.
Our General Court leaders must act decisively to render all such bills and amendments that include ‘conscious objection’ and ‘matter of conscious’ exemptions from vaccinations as “inexpedient to legislate.” By attempting to appease the anti-vax bunch, you risk far more by undermining New Hampshire’s economic engine, our schools’ safety, and our local communities’ wellbeing.
Advocates for this law change claim that it will never happen here. Don’t believe it. Epidemics for specific childhood diseases literally follow where childhood immunization rates tumble.
A good example of this behavior happened in Japan in the 1970s which had a good vaccination program for pertussis (whooping cough). With 80% of Japanese children vaccinated in 1974, there were 393 cases of whooping cough and no deaths.
Then rumors began in 1975 that the vaccine was unsafe and wasn’t needed. By 1976, the vaccination rate plunged to 10%. A pertussis epidemic ensued by 1979, with more than 13,000 cases and 41 young child deaths.
The last pertussis regional epidemic in the United States occurred in 2010 when nearly 10,000 cases were reported among unvaccinated children in California, including 808 hospitalizations and 10 infant deaths.
Just prior to the pandemic in 2019, the U.S. had 13 measles outbreaks that were almost entirely associated with under-immunized close-knit communities, representing the largest number of cases reported since 1994.
While measles was declared eliminated in 2000 (i.e., no single case reported in the U.S. for 12 months), most of these outbreaks to under-vaccinated communities were directly imported from people visiting from other countries or brought back by unvaccinated U.S. residents traveling abroad, where 7 million measles cases are estimated to occur annually.
The 2019 outbreaks were driven by misinformation about measles and the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine, which directly led to the under vaccination that made these communities vulnerable.
And don’t even get me started on the parallels with some New Hampshire fringe groups to what the anti-vax Taliban is doing in some Middle Eastern countries to bring back polio, nearly eradicated from our planet in 2016.
The sponsor may be able to confuse and mislead legislators, as well as exploit current fears and frustrations among the public. But don’t lie to me and the medical community.
If you liked the confusion and trauma over the last two years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, then you’re going to really love what bills like HB 1035 cause in restrictions, loss of liberty and anguish among Granite State children, parents and grandparents caused by the ongoing terror of local community outbreaks of childhood diseases and their resulting afflictions that we have not known in our lifetime.
Urge your state lawmakers to vote down as “inexpedient to legislate” all bills and amendments which seek to weaken childhood and other immunization programs, such as the ‘conscious objection’ and ‘matter of conscious’ exemptions from vaccinations.
(James Potter is the Executive Vice President of the New Hampshire Medical Society. He lives in Concord.)