A nurse moves to the forefront in the anti-vaccine mandate effort
Nov. 28—Shortly after muttering "Amen" during an Executive Council meeting on Oct. 13, Terese Grinnell was in the back of a police wagon with eight other people, her hands zip-tied.
It was her first arrest.
A month later, that incident has propelled the 48-year-old registered nurse and mother of two foster children to prominence among the anti-mandate, anti-vaccination movement.
Experts acknowledge that movement is a factor as New Hampshire struggles with yet another surge of COVID-19.
Grinnell attends legislative hearings and local meetings. She stands at a Concord street corner with signs denouncing vaccine mandates.
The Southern California native promises to fight her arrest, which took place shortly before the Executive Council rejected a $27 million federal grant to expand vaccinations. The Council reversed itself the next month.
"She's a very impassioned speaker," said Dr. David Strang, a semi-retired emergency room physician who, like Grinnell, challenges the medical establishment over issues of mandatory vaccinations. "It would be easier for the government if she just shut up."
Grinnell and the anti-vaccination movement are pushing their message as COVID-19 is taking hold in the state again.
On Tuesday, state officials said New Hampshire was experiencing its second straight day of record COVID-19 hospitalizations. The seven-day average of new cases is bouncing up and down around 1,000. And schools logged 480 onsite, active cases at midweek.
The Centers for Disease Control ranked New Hampshire third-highest in the country for community transmission of the virus, though the state is closer to the middle of the pack on other measures such as death and positivity rates.
Big impact
Dr. Gary Sobelson, a family-practice physician and former president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, said the anti-vaccination movement has had a significant impact in New Hampshire's COVID-19 status.
"It's why we're still in a pandemic," he said.
He said New Hampshire's nimble government and sense of community proved beneficial in the early days of the pandemic, when the state lauded its front-line workers and quickly obtained and distributed protective gear.
But as public health measures called for individual actions such as masking and vaccinations, the state's libertarian and independent streak kicked in.
"New Hampshire has struggled with that. Our political framework is where people don't respond to authoritative recommendations," he said.
Risk and reward
Grinnell lives in Loudon with her boyfriend, a mechanic, and two children. She adopted one in October and is the permanent guardian of the other. She runs the New Hampshire branch of the Forgotten Initiative, a ministry that supports foster parents and has about 1,000 Facebook followers.
She has worked as a nurse for 11 years, including a 2 1/2 -year stint at Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinics. Her current employer has asked her to keep the organization's identity out of any media coverage, but Grinnell said she works an overnight shift and provides bedside care to critically ill patients.
She has pronounced patients dead of COVID-19, she said. In the early days of the pandemic, Grinnell had a COVID-infected nurse throw up on her, she said.
She hasn't contracted the disease.
Her problem with the vaccine, especially the messenger-RNA vaccines marketed by Pfizer and Moderna, is the absence of long-term studies of at least 3 to 5 years for the vaccines.
"It doesn't make sense to me to take the risk. The risk-reward isn't there," Grinnell said.
At work, she uses PPE — gloves and N-95 masks that she changes after contact with each patient. She also uses sanitary wipes on surfaces.
Outside work, she maintains social distance, coughs into her sleeve, avoids door knobs and light switches and washes her hands frequently.
But she doesn't mask in public. Masks gather bacteria, which a person touches with their hands and are likely to spread, Grinnell said. And people are meant to breathe clean air, she said.
Favors alternatives
Grinnell believes that the pandemic would be better controlled by giving infected patients earlier access to drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and Ivermectin.
New Hampshire was slow to make monoclonal antibodies available but eventually did so early this year. Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine for animals, is widely dismissed by doctors as an effective treatment for COVID-19. But it has been used for years on people for other ailments.
Limited evidence shows that Ivermectin may be helpful in treating COVID-19 for some patients, just as hydroxychloroquine has shown to be, Sobelson said.
But he disputed the notion of basing an entire strategy for controlling a pandemic on treatments that have not gone through scientific rigor.
Sobelson also acknowledged that the vaccines have not been subject to long-term studies; time hasn't permitted it. But 1,500 people are dying every day in the United States from the disease, he said.
"The comfort level for this is about the dangers of rejecting the technology," Sobelson said. Although immunity may be waning among the vaccinated, he stressed that the vaccines still prevent serious complications in most breakthrough cases.
His concern is that people who show up at legislative hearings claim they've researched COVID-19 — "they look it up on Dr. Google" — and consider themselves knowledgeable.
"People will read medical literature and become experts. I read it and become humbled," he said.
The medical field has always had its outliers, he said, but no one in fields such as public health and virology is disputing the necessity of vaccinations and masks.
'My job is to advocate'
Even Grinnell is hesitant to make a blanket statement about vaccines. For example, vaccinations for elderly.
"It might make sense; I haven't ruled one way or the other," she said.
But she added that as a clinician she shouldn't be telling a patient to take or not take a vaccine
"My job is to educate," she said. "I'm more pro-choice, body autonomy."
She said her children have all their childhood vaccines; she's not against vaccines that have been tested long-term. She has opposed New Hampshire's opt-out approach to the vaccination registry.
A complaint has been filed against her with the Board of Nursing, alleging her anti-mandate message constitutes a health hazard. She has 30 days to respond.
Grinnell said she has her job for now. Her employer won't mandate vaccinations until forced by the federal government, and only 52% of her employer's workforce is vaccinated anyway, she said.
But if mandated, she will refuse the vaccine and quit her six-figure job, she said: "I'm not going to put my body at a health risk."
In the meantime, she has a criminal case to fight.
On Nov. 19, she pleaded not guilty at her arraignment. She complained about bail conditions requiring she stay away from Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council. Judges usually prohibit defendants from approaching their alleged victims, but in this case Grinnell said the prohibition is a violation of her rights.
She believes she has a strong case and expects to subpoena Sununu, who is mentioned in her criminal complaint, to testify.
"Our legal team says this is the best case ever," Grinnell said. "This case can be so much fun."
