Gov. Janet Mills issued an order Friday authorizing Maine health care providers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine “to individuals who meet the criteria established by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The order comes weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its vaccine guidance to limit the groups of people approved to get this year’s shot.
Previous guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control made the vaccine available to anyone six months or older. The FDA updated their guidance to approve this year’s vaccine only for people 65 and older and those with high risk conditions. The CDC also has not recommended the vaccine, which has barred Maine pharmacists from distributing it except to those with a prescription.
Mills’ order authorizes health care professionals, including pharmacists, to administer the vaccine to “all Maine people” six months and older.
“I will not stand idly by while the Trump Administration makes it harder for Maine people to get a vaccine that protects their health and could very well save their life,” Mills said in a written statement. “Through this standing order, we are stepping up to knock down the barriers the Trump Administration is putting in the way of the health and welfare of Maine people.”
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of making false claims about vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a congressional hearing last week, Kennedy told senators that mRNA vaccines like the COVID-19 shot “cause serious harm, including death” despite evidence and research from his own agency to the contrary.
This summer, Kennedy fired all members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June and has since reportedly replaced them with his advisers aligned with his views. He did the same with CDC Director Susan Monarez this month for what she described as her resistance to Kennedy’s political meddling in scientific research.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement Aug. 19 recommending that children between 6-23 months still get the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine, along with older children in high-risk groups, despite the federal government’s new guidelines. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in a statement Aug. 27, also refuted the federal government’s updated recommendations.
The Maine CDC’s order cites those organizations’ research and guidance, saying “Vaccination remains a vital public health tool to prevent COVID-19 infection, severe illness, hospitalization, and death.”
The state is recommending Mainers from ages six months and up and all adults 18 years and older be vaccinated “consistent with certain risk factors.”
MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, will cover the cost of vaccination for those enrolled. Insurance companies will provide the vaccine “without any cost sharing or prior authorization,” officials say.
Mills’ standing order follows a similar mandate from Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey in early September to ensure vaccines remain accessible in the state. Maine and Massachusetts are among a coalition of eight northeastern states rallying to protect vaccine access amid federal restrictions.
This story will be updated.