The Granite State could be the first to ditch polio and measles requirements for childcare.The Rolling StoneBy Julia MétrauxApril 20, 2024New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in childcare to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only state in the US to have such a law, although many states allow religious exemptions to vaccine requirements.Currently, Republicans control New Hampshire’s state House, Senate and governor’s office—but that isn’t a guarantee that the bill will be signed into law, with GOP Gov. Chris Sununu seemingly flip-flopping when it comes to disease control. Sununu did sign a bill in 2021 allowing people to use public places and services even if they did not receive the Covid-19 vaccine. But the next year, the governor vetoed a bill that would bar schools from implementing mask mandates.
I remember…
The fear my parents had about Polio, they were terrified, it was in my school and one of the neighbors child came down with it. I remember getting “The Shot” and then oral vaccine. I am still alive and Polio free after almost 70 years. The child that came down with Polio died about ten years, all her life she was in a wheel chair.
The polio vaccine, first offered in 1955, and the MMR shot, which treats the highly infectious measles, mumps, and rubella viruses, are two very crucial vaccines both in the US and internationally. Since the year 2000 alone, vaccines against measles are estimated to have saved over 55 million lives around the world.
The vaccines have been out for generations! But these crazy people think that vaccines are some liberal plot.
The bill would strike language requiring that immunization records be submitted to childcare agencies, but would keep those requirements for students enrolling in kindergarten through 12th grade. As of 2022, according to the nonprofit ChildCare Aware of America, there are some 700 licensed childcare centers and homes in New Hampshire (which doesn’t require the Covid-19 vaccine for enrollment in childcare, either, despite its efficiency in reducing both death rates and acute symptoms).
So this Cuckoo Award goes to all these Republicans and parents who are anti-vaxxers, their cult leader says vaccines are a Democratic plot.
I can remember standing in-line at the local health department in the 1950's and then later in the elementary school lunchroom to be given the polio vaccines. It did not take much to get parents to take the kids to be vaccinated. While we boys went off the play baseball every chance we had, one boy could not join up as his struggled with his metal legs braces and forearms walking sticks. He was a walking advertisement for, "Get the shots!"
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