Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday announced a series of steps designed to make sure that people who want to get vaccines in Massachusetts can do so without facing barriers from costs or the federal government.
As federal policy around vaccinations shifts under President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Healey and state health officials say immunizations against conditions like COVID-19, flu, measles and RSV will remain available in Massachusetts.
“Vaccines are the greatest public health advance of our time,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state’s public health commissioner. “They prevent illness, they prevent suffering, they prevent death. To restrict access to vaccines is reckless. To play politics with vaccines is dangerous. And our state will not bend to the partisan decisions made in Washington that are putting our communities at risk.”
Goldstein, an infectious disease physician who also previously worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a standing order that allows pharmacies to provide COVID shots to all Massachusetts residents age 5 and up.
Healey said that order means that CVS and Walgreens pharmacies across the state will be able to start booking COVID shot appointments as soon as this week, despite the federal government narrowing its eligibility recommendations. She compared it to Goldstein writing “a prescription for every Massachusetts resident.”
Along with the changes around COVID shot recommendations, Kennedy, who was known for his anti-vaccine advocacy before joining Trump’s Cabinet, fired the members of a vaccine advisory panel and pressured the CDC’s director to resign.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee is expected to meet later this month and could announce new national vaccine recommendations.
Goldstein said the state public health department is “prepared to move quickly to provide clear communication, reduce confusion, and maintain access to these vital protections.”
Healey described Massachusetts’ actions as a “response to the dereliction of duty by Secretary Kennedy and the federal administration.”
The federal moves have prompted states across the country to act. California, Oregon and Washington are forming a health alliance where they will coordinate on immunization guidelines, while Florida is moving in the other direction by looking to end vaccine mandates in its schools.
In Massachusetts, the state Department of Public Health is updating its policies so that the public health commissioner — Goldstein — rather than a CDC advisory committee will determine which routine vaccines can be administered by pharmacists in Massachusetts.
Similarly, state officials are now requiring that Massachusetts health insurers continue to cover vaccines recommended by the DPH, not just those recommended by the CDC.
Healey also announced a collaboration with other northeastern states, which she said would develop ”recommendations for safe, science-backed vaccines that patients, doctors, pharmacists and health plans can rely on.“ She said more details would be available soon.
The multi-state effort will also work to ”protect and sustain our public health labs, our disease monitoring, our surveillance and our emergency preparedness,“ Healey said.
“People here will continue to get the care and the protection that they need,” said Healey, an Arlington Democrat. “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.”
