CONCORD — New Hampshire would be prohibited from mandating vaccines and its vaccine registry would switch from an opt-out to an opt-in system under two bills before a House committee Monday. The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee held public hearings on two bills sponsored by Rep. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton. While several speakers brought up the COVID-19 vaccine, Lang said neither was inspired specifically by the coronavirus pandemic.
The first would declare an “inalienable right to bodily integrity, free from any threat or compulsion that the person accepts any medical intervention, including immunization.” Lang said he objects to state rules requiring foster parents to be vaccinated against certain diseases.
“We can yell about this bill to death, and ‘what if’ this bill to death, but the bottom line is, you believe that an individual has the right to choose what they get poked with, what they’re cut open with, and that the state can never mandate or force medical procedures on an individual, or you don’t,” he said. “I believe that I have the right, and every individual in New Hampshire, has the right to make that choice.”
Opponents took issue with a section of the bill that states that no person may be discriminated against for refusing a vaccine, noting that hospitals require employees to be vaccinated against the flu and the state requires certain vaccines for schoolchildren, although there are religious and medical exemptions.
“The communicable disease statutes in New Hampshire protect and support individuals to make choices,” said Patricia Tilley, deputy director of the state division of public health. “But our laws also protect individuals from the decisions of others. Vaccine requirements protect those who are compromised.”
Multiple physicians spoke against the bill, while supporters included several people who said they moved to New Hampshire from New York in search of “medical freedom” after New York ended its religious exemption for vaccines.
“New Hampshire stands as a beacon of freedom, and we fled here because we believe the ‘Live Free or Die’ state will stand up to tyranny and defend and respect everyone’s right to make their own medical decisions about their own bodies,” said Leslie Nuchow.
The second bill would prohibit the state from collecting a patient’s data for its new vaccine registry unless a patient specifically chooses to participate. Under current law, patients are given the opportunity to opt out.
Upper Valley senior living facilities continue to see deaths related to COVID-19. A sixth resident of the Sullivan County home in Unity died on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19, and a third resident of Cedar Hill Continuing Care Community in Windsor also has died, according to the facilities’ leaders.
The outbreak at the Unity nursing home, the largest the Upper Valley has seen during the pandemic, has included a total of 130 cases, 84 residents and 46 workers, said Ted Purdy, the administrator, in a Monday email. Of the affected employees, 35 have returned to work, he said.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we are through the worst of it,” County Manager Derek Ferland said in an email. As of Monday, it had been 10 days since the nursing home held its second vaccination clinic, he said.
The outbreak at Cedar Hill includes a total of 25 cases, said Patricia Horn, the community’s executive director, in an email. That includes 15 cases in residents and seven in workers at the Village at Cedar Hill, the community’s independent and assisted living section. Three employees at the community’s nursing home also have tested positive, she said. Three Cedar Hill residents remain hospitalized or at the post-acute rehabilitation center, Horn said. Others have had no symptoms or symptoms are subsiding, she said.
The community had a second vaccination clinic on Jan. 28 and more than 90% of the residents had their second vaccination, Horn said.
“That was an exciting day,” she wrote.
The outbreak at the Sullivan County Department of Corrections, which is near the nursing home in Unity, has grown to 51 cases, 38 inmates and 13 workers, Ferland said.
As of Monday, 15 inmates and seven workers had recovered, he said. The department is scheduled for a first round of vaccinations on Wednesday, he said.
BRADFORD, Vt. — Oxbow High School students are learning remotely until Thursday, according to a school Facebook post. Families can call the school at 802-222-5214 if they would like to pick up meals during the school’s remote learning period.
Stevens High School in Claremont also shifted to a remote learning model on Monday to allow for contact tracing after school officials learned of a COVID-19 case affecting the school on Sunday evening, said Assistant Superintendent Donna Magoon in an email message to families. A second case was confirmed on Monday, but in-person instruction was planned on Tuesday, according to the district.
CLAREMONT — A mobile food pantry will be at the Runnings store on Washington Street next week to distribute food to Sullivan County residents, according to an email from the city.
The New Hampshire Food Bank is scheduled to bring the food to Claremont in a drive-thru event on Tuesday, Feb. 16, from noon to 2 p.m., and then again on March 16.
The Vermont Foodbank’s VeggieVanGo has monthly drive-thru events, open to anyone in need of food, this week in Windsor and in Springfield, Vt. The Windsor stop is scheduled for Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Goodyear property. Attendees should enter through River Street and exit onto McCarty Avenue. People planning to attend should check mtascutneyhospital.org/veggies or Facebook in case of bad weather.
On Friday, the second Friday of the month, VeggieVanGo is scheduled to come to Springfield’s Riverside Middle School from 10 to 11 a.m. People are asked not to arrive before 8:30 a.m. in order to keep the parking lot clear for school traffic.