PUBLIC HEALTHHealth Officials from 10 Northeast States Officially Band Together
More states are responding to – and rebuking — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s antivaccine efforts by pulling their resources so they can provide evidence-based, science-informed vaccine guidance and coordinate public health efforts which are independent of the federal government.
After months of informal talks, health officials from 10 Northeastern states have announced they’re forming a bloc called the Northeast Public Health Collaborative to issue vaccine guidance and coordinate public health efforts independent of the federal government. New Hampshire is not among them.
Officials from New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware announced the collaboration in a press release Thursday after months of unofficial discussions. Vermont officials said on social media Thursday, and later in an email to the Bulletin, it’s also involved in the collaboration. Representatives from several of the states previously met in person in Rhode Island in August.
The group said it would be collaborating on vaccine recommendations, data collection, and emergency preparedness, among other health efforts.
The effort comes amid turmoil at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Trump administration has tried to fire roughly 10,000 Health and Human Services employees, including 2,400 at the CDC, though many of those firings were halted by courts. Those fired include CDC Director Susan Monarez, whose layoff inspired four top CDC officials to resign in protest. Under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC is no longer recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children or pregnant women. He fired 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and replaced many of them with skeptics. And he cut roughly $500 million from a series of mRNA vaccine research projects.
On Thursday, the Northeast collaborative made its first recommendations, which depart from Kennedy’s recent changes to CDC guidelines in that they recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children 6 months to 2 years old and pregnant women. For children ages 2 to 18, they recommend weighing a child’s risk level for COVID-19. That’s consistent with what national medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend.
New Hampshire is the only New England state not to join the collaborative. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office did not respond to the Bulletin’s requests for comment.
