Massachusetts Rebuffs RFK Jr. With Northeast Vaccine Accord (1)

Massachusetts is forming a coalition of Northeast states to issue vaccine recommendations that may conflict with those from the federal government, escalating a clash between states and the Trump administration over public health policy.

Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts announced the initiative on Thursday as part of a broader push to guarantee access to vaccines for state residents amid dramatic shifts in the national policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vocal vaccine critic.

Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have agreed to be part of the coalition that will issue vaccine recommendations, said Karissa Hand, a spokesperson for Healey. New York has also joined, according to a spokesperson for that state’s health department.

It’s the latest attempt by states to establish their own public health infrastructure. This week, California, Oregon and Washington said they would form their own coalition to issue vaccine guidance, similar to the allianceHealey is pursuing in the Northeast.

Massachusetts will also require all insurers to pay for shots recommended by the state health department, even if the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which normally guides who gets what shots — doesn’t call for them. The state will also allow pharmacies to dispense the new Covid vaccines without a federal recommendation.

The governor’s announcement came hours after Kennedy was grilled at a Senate hearing by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers over the changes he has overseen to national health policy, with the backing of President Donald Trump.

Kennedy dismissed every member of a key CDC vaccine policy committee earlier this year, later appointing in their place some vaccine critics and one self-proclaimed “anti-vaxxer.” He recently removed the director of the CDC after she disagreed with him over his stance on vaccines.

“It’s a pretty sad statement that we can no longer trust the federal government on this, but sadly, that’s where we’re at,” Healey said at a press conference Thursday.

Representatives for the governors of Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on their involvement in the public health coalition.

Some Democrats at the national level have also pushed insurance companies to look outside the Trump administration for vaccine recommendations. US Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts suggested in an interview in Bloomberg’s Boston office last month that a group of insurers, professional societies and medical experts could come together and set guidelines themselves.

Massachusetts will release guidance by the end of September about vaccinations for the 2025-2026 respiratory illness season, Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said at the press conference.

Earlier on Thursday, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy moved to allow pharmacists to dispense the new Covid shots, even though they haven’t been recommended by the federal government. Previously, Massachusetts pharmacy personnel, like those in some other states, were only allowed to give vaccines that were recommended by the CDC advisory panel that now includes vaccine critics. The panel is scheduled to convene later this month.

Massachusetts also authorized pharmacists to give the new Covid vaccines to a wider group of people than the Food and Drug Administration did. The federal approval was granted for people age 65 and older, and for younger people with a health condition putting them at increased risk for severe Covid. State policy allows pharmacists to give Covid vaccines to younger people without underlying health conditions, with the exact ages varying based on the different shots.

(Adds New York’s participation in the third paragraph.)

--With assistance from Jessica Nix and Greg Ryan.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Ike Swetlitz in Boston at iswetlitz@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Cynthia Koons at ckoons@bloomberg.net

Kelly Gilblom, Brooke Sutherland

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