The New Hampshire House of Representatives recently approved two bills pertaining to childhood vaccine mandates.
New Hampshire Bulletin reports that one bill passed last week, House Bill 357, seeks to limit “childhood immunization requirements” and “removes the authority of the commissioner of health and human services to adopt rules requiring immunization for additional childhood diseases.”
Should the bill continue to move through the state’s legislature, vaccines for varicella, Hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) would no longer be mandatory for children by July 2026. Vaccines for diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, poliomyelitis, rubella, rubeola, and tetanus would still be required.
Another bill, House Bill 679, states that “no childhood immunization requirement shall require a vaccine that has not been shown in clinical trials to prevent transmission of any disease.”
The bills come as the Trump administration has launched a health commission following the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Make America Healthy Again Commission is intended to combat chronic childhood diseases.
The order explains that as of 2022, 40% of U.S. children had “at least one health condition, such as allergies, asthma, or an autoimmune disease.”
“Autism spectrum disorder now affects 1 in 36 children in the United States — a staggering increase from rates of 1 to 4 out of 10,000 children identified with the condition during the 1980s,” it reads.
October data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that vaccine exemption rates rose to 3.3% in the 2023-2024 school year, up from 3.0% the year prior.
Vaccine coverage for kindergartners is 92.3% for diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP), while coverage for measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) is 92.7%.
