The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said it will continue to follow recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical organizations for routine vaccine scheduling. The recommendations are unchanged from last year, and include a combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
This comes as President Trump recently signed an executive order calling for the MMR vaccine to be broken into three shots. The order comes despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance stating, “no published scientific evidence shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots.
Thomas Brown, a spokesperson for the state health department, said in a statement: “The Department continues to monitor data on the safety and efficacy of routine vaccines to inform public health recommendations that best serve New Hampshire. DHHS encourages anyone with questions about vaccines to speak to a trusted healthcare provider.”
Dr. Patrick Passarelli, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Dartmouth Health, said the executive order is not legally binding and that people deserve vaccine recommendations based on scientific evidence. He also said the existing childhood vaccine schedule, which includes the combination MMR vaccine, has been repeatedly found to be safe and effective.
Separate vaccines for measles, mumps or rubella have not been available in the United States for many years.
Passarelli said spacing out vaccines doesn’t make people safer.
“The flip side to that is when people start to space out their vaccinations, it risks [you] getting infected with the exact things we're trying to prevent before you can get in for the next vaccine,” Passarelli said.
Passarelli said a common question he hears from parents is whether vaccines make people sick.
“I always use myself as an example,” Passarelli said. “The day after I get my yearly flu vaccine, I always have a little bit of a tough day. I'm a little tired, a little achy, but I know that's my body's immune system, ramping up and learning how to fight off flu in case I encounter it, which I almost inevitably do.”
Another question Passarelli said he gets from parents is if having many vaccines can be taxing on a child’s immune system. Passarelli said from the moment we’re born, we immediately encounter thousands of tiny pieces of viruses and bacteria that our body begins to fight off.
“I always point that out just because we're not thinking about it and giving explicitly a vaccination against it, we're still being stimulated all the time by our immune system. So there's no way the regular childhood vaccine schedule could ever compare to that regular stimulation we're getting on a daily basis,” Passarelli said.
In addition to recommending the routine MMR vaccine, Passarelli also recommends children get RSV and flu shots as they head back to school.
“Getting your child vaccinated is ensuring that they're protected as much as you can that's within your control,” he said. “It's really scary because there is a lot that's not in our control and so that's one thing that really is.”
In New Hampshire, children through the age of 18 are eligible for all recommended vaccines at no cost for the vaccine.
