The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services will follow guidance from national medical organizations on recommended childhood immunizations, days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed several vaccines from the list it recommends for all children.
Previously, the CDC recommended all children be vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, Meningitis, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and Rotavirus. Now, these vaccines are only recommended for children who are “high risk.”
Iain Watt, the director of the New Hampshire Division of Public Health, told the Executive Council on Jan. 7 that there would be no changes to the availability of vaccines through the state’s Vaccines for Children program, which follows long-standing advice from groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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“We consult closely with Dr. [Benjamin] Chan and Dr. [Jonathan] Ballard,” Watt said, referring to the state epidemiologist and health department’s chief medical officer, “as well as our team in public health and immunization to make sure that we’re surveying all the available information in the guidance that’s best for New Hampshire.”
In a statement, leaders from the American Academy of Pediatrics called the changes to federal childhood vaccine guidance from the CDC “dangerous and unnecessary.”
Local public health experts – in New Hampshire and nationally – have also criticized the move.
“The vaccines removed from the list prevent or reduce the severity of several serious diseases, including RSV, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, meningitis and seasonal flu,” Keith J. Loud, physician-in-chief for Dartmouth Health Children’s, said in a statement. “There is no evidence suggesting harms from the previous CDC-recommended 2024 vaccine schedule.”
Loud said the previous vaccination recommendations from the CDC are grounded in “rigorous science, and the expertise of immunologists, infectious disease specialists, and public health professionals."
States are not mandated to follow CDC recommendations for immunizations, and, in recent days, many states have announced that they don’t plan to follow the new federal vaccine guidance. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey condemned the changes, and said the state would continue to issue its own independent recommendations.
A number of other states – including Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Wisconsin – have also announced that they will not adopt the new CDC recommendations, and instead rely on guidance from national medical organizations.
