Gov. Janet Mills issued an order Friday authorizing Maine health care providers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine \u201cto individuals who meet the criteria established by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The order comes weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its vaccine<\/a> guidance to limit the groups of people approved<\/a> to get this year\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Mills\u2019 order authorizes health care professionals, including pharmacists, to administer the vaccine to \u201call Maine people\u201d six months and older.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d\u00a0Mills said in a written statement. \u201cThrough 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.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a\u00a0long history<\/a>\u00a0of making false claims about vaccines, including the\u00a0COVID-19 vaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a congressional hearing last week, Kennedy told senators that mRNA vaccines like the COVID-19 shot \u201ccause serious harm, including death\u201d despite evidence and research from his own agency<\/a> to the contrary. <\/p>\n This summer, Kennedy\u00a0fired 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<\/a> this month for what she described as her resistance to Kennedy\u2019s political meddling in scientific research.<\/p>\n The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement Aug. 19<\/a> 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\u2019s new guidelines. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in a statement Aug. 27<\/a>, also refuted the federal government\u2019s updated recommendations.<\/p>\n The Maine CDC\u2019s order cites those organizations\u2019 research and guidance, saying \u201cVaccination remains a vital public health tool to prevent COVID-19 infection, severe illness, hospitalization, and death.\u201d<\/p>\n The state is recommending Mainers from ages six months and up and all adults 18 years and older be vaccinated \u201cconsistent with certain risk factors.\u201d<\/p>\n MaineCare, the state\u2019s Medicaid program, will cover the cost of vaccination for those enrolled. Insurance companies will provide the vaccine \u201cwithout any cost sharing or prior authorization,\u201d officials say.<\/p>\n Mills\u2019 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.<\/p>\n This story will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Janet Mills issued an order Friday authorizing Maine health care providers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine \u201cto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-152313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}