Now that the dust has settled and the budget has become law, I am writing you personally, beloved activists, because I want to celebrate RebuildNH’s historic and long-fought victory to remove rule-making authority from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) pertaining to the vaccinations that are listed on the state’s child immunization schedule.
As part of celebrating this victory, I also want to express deep gratitude to our Executive Director, Melissa Blasek, who was instrumental in moving this policy change across the finish line. Please note: Former Rep. Melissa Blasek serves as Executive Director of RebuildNH at the pleasure of the RebuildNH Board of Directors, and we stand by her work. We also want to thank Reps. Erica Layon and Jim Kofalt for their part in the effort. They deserve our gratitude as well.
For those who are interested, I am sharing our fact sheet that corrects much of the misinformation that has been disseminated by activists who have held back this reform since we began working on it in 2022. Over this time period, our position has remained consistent, which is this: We can no longer allow unaccountable bureaucrats (a.k.a. the “Deep State”) to have carte blanche authority to institute new vaccine mandates in New Hampshire.
With this reform, we have stripped this authority from the “Deep State” and returned it to the Legislature, which is accountable to We the People. To be clear: this reform did not add any new vaccines to the list of required immunizations, and nor did it remove any—that wasn’t the point! The point is and always was to remove unbridled power from the “Deep State” to force new vaccines on our children.
To read the language we are celebrating, please search for section 141:456 and 141:457 in the chaptered version of HB2, linked here. Please note: the vaccinations added to statute were already required vaccinations due to administrative rules. Accordingly, there is no material change to the list of required vaccinations. We are celebrating the repeal of rule-making authority for the Commissioner of DHHS and the repeal of RSA 141-C:6, XIII, relative to rulemaking for other communicable diseases under RSA 141-C:20-a, I. No longer do we have to fear a backdoor move to mandate new vaccines for our children, but all changes from now on will be made in the light of day.
That being said, with religious exemptions intact, parents of faith can continue to protect their children from ALL vaccine mandates, AND now we can get to work on removing vaccine mandates from the statute altogether. On this last point, I am making an appeal to those of you who are not seeing this victory in the same light that we are: Please stop the unwarranted name-calling and disinformation campaign and join us in a united effort to eliminate unnecessary vaccines from statute from this point forward. Help us to bring the actual science to the table, perhaps even with the help of our wonderful U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of reasonable and data-driven reform. Let’s make science science again and return to healthy debate that respects the dignity of the human beings fighting for liberty while keeping the conversation centered on the issues that matter to our families and children. While Secretary Kennedy focuses on making America healthy again, let our focus be on making New Hampshire healthy again. Together, with the help of God, we can do this.
Towards Liberty Under God,
Andrew J. Manuse, chairman, RebuildNH
