Maine and six other Northeast states formally announced Thursday a collaboration to “promote and protect evidence-based public health” with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. making sharp changes at the federal level.
The Northeast Public Health Collaborative includes Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York state and New York City. It comes after California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii formed a similar alliance earlier this month that announced joint vaccine recommendations for the flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
The partnerships are an example of the political fractures on vaccines and other health policy issues since the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats who control the states have been citing a need to counter President Donald Trump’s administration and its policies.
“As the Trump Administration politicizes and undermines our nation’s public health system, our state will work closely with our neighbors to promote and protect the health and wellbeing of Maine people,” Mills said in a news release.
The Northeast states have been in talks since early 2025 but formally announced the regional collaborative Thursday. The announcement of the new coalition came the same day an advisory committee reshaped by Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine activist, was meeting in Atlanta to potentially vote on changing recommendations on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox.
Kennedy fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. He fired former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez last month.
Monarez testified Wednesday to a Senate committee that Kennedy told her she would need to quit the job if she refused to sign off on the new vaccine recommendations that Kennedy had no data or science on to back up his request. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted to confirm Kennedy in February, has been critical of his firing of Monarez.
Thursday’s announcement from Maine and the other states said the collaborative held its first meeting in Rhode Island in August and is identifying ways to plan and collaborate in areas such as public health emergency preparedness, vaccine recommendations and purchasing, data collection, infectious diseases, epidemiology and lab services.
Maine officials are specifically contributing to groups on immunizations and public health preparedness and response, Mills said. Each state also “retains independence” to adopt their own initiatives, per the news release.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon criticized Thursday’s announcement from the Northeast states.
“Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies,” Nixon said.
Last week, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a standing order that authorizes pharmacists and health care professionals to administer the current COVID vaccine and that Mainers do not need prescriptions for it amid Kennedy limiting eligibility last month. The state’s insurance superintendent also told insurers operating here they must cover the vaccine.
