Gov. Janet Mills issued an order Friday that will expand the number of people who can get COVID-19 vaccines in Maine, going against federal guidance that had limited approvals for this year’s shot.
The order authorizes health care professionals, including pharmacists, to administer the vaccine to all Mainers without a prescription and coincides with new recommendations from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its vaccine guidance earlier this year to limit vaccine eligibility to people 65 and older and those with high-risk conditions. Previous guidelines made the vaccine available to anyone 6 months or older.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has not recommended the vaccine and barred Maine pharmacists from distributing it to anyone without a prescription before Mills’ order.
“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.”
GIVE THEM TIME
The Maine CDC now recommends the vaccine for all children between 6 and 23 months, children between 2 and 18 with certain risk factors, and all adults 18 and older, as well as people who are pregnant, immunocompromised or have underlying medical conditions.
MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, will cover the cost of vaccination for those enrolled, and insurance companies will be required to cover the vaccine “without any cost sharing or prior authorization,” state officials say.
Mills’ order follows a similar mandate Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued this month to ensure vaccines remained accessible in that state. Maine and Massachusetts are among a coalition of eight northeastern states organizing to protect vaccine access amid federal restrictions.
Still, some worry the new guidance will not line up with Maine’s ability to receive pediatric vaccines from the federal government.
Amelia Arnold, vice president of the Maine Pharmacy Association, said pharmacies in the state are working to have the COVID-19 vaccine available as soon as possible.
“My understanding is most pharmacies have this in stock,” she said. “It’s still very early in the season, so if someone doesn’t have it in stock or if they need to reorder, just be patient with them and give them time.”
She encouraged Mainers to “give health providers the weekend” to prepare to distribute the vaccine.
“We need to make sure it’s thoroughly reviewed and implemented, and so just give everyone a little time to get going with that,” she said. “But it’s a big step, it definitely protects access to the vaccine.”
‘IT’S THAT IMPORTANT’
Brandie Rubin, 47, is a registered nurse in Scarborough who works with patients receiving chemotherapy. She said was not approved to get the COVID-19 vaccine under the FDA guidelines, despite working with high-risk patients, and had been preparing to get it in Canada.
“I just think it’s that important for health care workers to be vaccinated,” Rubin said in a phone interview Friday. “I was planning to go in October, my husband and I, and to bring our daughter. Now we don’t have to do that.”
Rubin said she quickly scheduled an appointment to receive her COVID-19 vaccine through her primary care provider in Scarborough next month.
The federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine guidance was changed this year at the behest of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a long history of making false claims about vaccines, including those for COVID-19.
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.
Kennedy also fired all of the members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June and has since replaced them with advisers that align with his views, according to national media outlets.
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.
VACCINE AVAILABILITY FOR KIDS
Caitlin Gilmet, 44, of Portland, said she has gotten the COVID-19 vaccine with her family each year and has advocated for vaccine access in Maine ever since her 7-year-old son, Thomas, caught chickenpox as in infant.
“He was teeny, tiny and really sick,” she said. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to endure preventable disease when we have such a great solution right there.”
Gilmet founded Maine Families for Vaccines, a volunteer-led organization that advocates for vaccine access and encourages families to trust vaccine guidance based on science. The organization advocated to pass a state law in 2019 that removed non-medical exemptions to school-required vaccination requirements.
Despite Mills’ latest order, Gilmet said she is worried pediatric vaccines are still at risk.
States purchase pediatric COVID-19 vaccines through the federal Vaccines for Children program, but that supply has not yet been released, said Dr. Laura Blaisdell, a pediatrician in Portland and a board member of Maine Families for Vaccines.
“As of right now, Maine pediatric practices, practices serving kids, don’t have access to the COVID vaccine,” she said. “The state does not have any supply that’s been released.”
The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting Sept. 18-19 to discuss COVID-19 vaccines, which Blaisdell said could determine how pediatric vaccines will be supplied to states.
“If the federal government does not release the supply to the state, we will not be able to operate underneath those very important emergency order guidelines,” Blaisdell said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement last month 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 last month, 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.”
Gilmet hopes her family can get vaccinated before they visit grandparents for the holidays.
“I’ve been really worried about whether or not we would be able to get our COVID vaccines in a timely manner,” she said. “So just seeing the state step up and issue this kind of decisive guidance based on expert recommendations is so important.”
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