The Nevada State Board of Health on Friday voted unanimously to reject federal changes that would have weakened vaccine requirements for children, maintaining more rigorous standards.

Individuals on the six-member board and the state’s top health officials said the new federal guidelines disregarded evidence-based recommendations supported by nearly every national and state health organization, and Nevada was choosing to “follow the science.” 

“We’re not removing individuals’ ability to make singular decisions, but we’re keeping our public health system aligned with the current evidence,” Vice Chair Dr. Jeffrey Murawsky said about the decision. “I think that says a lot about our commitment in the state.”

The vote followed a letter from local and state health agencies urging the board to reject the new vaccine recommendations from the Trump administration. Signatories included the Division of Public and Behavioral Health within the Department of Human Services, along with the Southern Nevada Health District, Northern Nevada Health District and the Central Nevada Health District.

In Nevada, kindergarten students must be vaccinated against chickenpox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella. Beginning in seventh grade, students must also be vaccinated against meningitis.

But under new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), hepatitis A and hepatitis B immunizations are recommended only for certain high-risk groups or populations, and the meningitis vaccine is now recommended only through shared clinical decision-making — if a doctor and patient’s family decide to move forward. 

Though ACIP recommendations can be influential, it’s up to each state to decide its own specific immunization requirements, which in Nevada must be approved by the Legislature or the State Board of Health. The Friday vote means existing requirements remain in place.

Dr. Ihsan Azzam, the chief medical officer of the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, said the “questionable recommendations” from ACIP would erode confidence in vaccination and routine vaccines at a time when vaccination rates in Nevada and across the country are declining. 

Azzam warned that this trend could put children at high risk for serious infection and death, as life-threatening infections that once were almost eliminated have the potential to return.

Nevada law allows parents to obtain an exemption from a vaccination mandate for medical or religious reasons. As vaccines have come under public scrutiny, the number of exemptions has risen, raising fears that herd immunity — when enough of a population is immunized that the ability of an infection to spread is limited — could be compromised.

Rising exemptions are driven in part by a lack of trust in medical authorities, shifting federal rules on vaccine guidance and increasingly anti-vaccine rhetoric from the Trump administration. 

“Together with our partners at the local health authorities, we have chosen to follow the reliable scientific evidence over some controversial recommendations that are not supported, neither medically nor scientifically,” Azzam said. “It’s already proven that routine vaccines protected us and our children from serious, debilitating infections for decades. Childhood immunization is one of the most effective interventions in the history of public health.”