While the dismantling of federal policy by the Secretary of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to hike in the Centers for Dissease Control and Prevention, certain States led by Democrats have withdrawn by themselves, creating new systems to help them assess science and maintain access to immunization to their residents.
Four western states – California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington – have created collaboration to preserve access to vaccines. Several northeast states have done the same.
The Governor of New York said an “urgency of disaster on a state scale” which allows pharmacists to give COVVI-19 vaccines without a separate prescription. Minnesota has made a similar change, and the Massachusetts requires that insurance companies pay the vaccines recommended by its health service, not just those recommended by the CDC.
Changes represent a significant change in the public health authority of the Federal Government to the States. Traditionally, states have turned to CDC for expertise and advice on public health issues – including, in addition to vaccines, safety at work, water fluoridation, vaping and sexually transmitted infections.
From now on, with regard to the concerns that Kennedy sakes confidence in vaccines and public health sciences, some states track new paths, are looking for new sources of scientific consensus and change the way in which they regulate insurance companies, prescribers and pharmacists.
The Colorado was at the front of this wave. On September 3, state officials issued a permanent order to allow pharmacists to provide cocvid photos without individual prescriptions.
“I will not allow administrative formalities or ridiculous and costly decisions taken far from Washington to prevent Coloradans from accessing vaccines,” said Democratic Governor Jared Polis.
But the leadership of Colorado had already paved the way for greater autonomy on vaccine policy for months.
In March, the state’s legislature voted to modify a law so that the state can consider scientific sources other than the federal government when setting the requirements of school vaccines.
“You could see the writing on the wall that it became too politicized rather than counting on real science with this new director of the HHS,” said the senator of the state Kyle Mullica.
Mullica, who has co -picked the new law, is a democrat and works as an emergency nurse in the Denver region.
Colorado is among the first states to modify its laws to allow it to recommend vaccines based on sources other than the CDC. The State Health Board can now also consult leading medical groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
“We have decided to protect Colorado,” said Mullica, so “would not be as vulnerable to political upheavals that we see at the moment.”
The legislature led by the Democrats adopted the bill during an almost partial vote. Polis signed it in April, although he praised Kennedy’s selection last fall.
“The Colorado, I think, really opens the way on this subject,” said David Higgins, a pediatrician of the Colorado University who was part of a group of stakeholders who helped develop the bill.
Higgins underlined a company bill, signed in May, which said that the Pusé du Colorado is even stronger. It deals with insurance coverage for preventive health care services, aimed at ensuring that state -regulated insurance schemes cover the cost of certain vaccines, regardless of CDC’s future measures.
“Indeed, this aims to ensure that coloradans will always have access to vaccines,” he said.
The chapter of the Colorado of the Defense of Children’s Health, the anti-Vaccin defense group that Kennedy led before resuming the HHS, did not respond to a comment request.
Another co-sponsor of the first bill, the representative of the Democratic State, Lindsay Gilchrist, said that the circulation of so many false information on vaccines, including for COVID, makes it important to hear a range of trusted medical experts.
Colorado had previously followed the CDC for scientific advice on vaccines, especially for children entering school. Like other states, he had followed the recommendations of a CDC panel known as the advisory committee on vaccination practices.
Kennedy dismissed the 17 members in June and replaced them with 12 new nominees, some of whom warn criticism are skeptics of vaccines and are not qualified to provide critical advice to the Americans.
“I think where the confusion will be the difference in the recommendations between the AIPI, to whom we traditionally recover, then to everyone,” said Ned Calonge, chief doctor of Colorado.
He expects the groups of national professional doctors that Colorado are now empowered to consult are probably aligned in their global advice and “will examine the latest recommendations based on evidence that was provided by the ACIP” before Kennedy replaces its members.
In May, Kennedy announced that the federal government had withdrawn the vaccines covid from the recommended shot list for healthy women and pregnant children.
But Colorado always recommends a vaccine coche during pregnancy, said Calonge.
“There was no new proof of security issues in this population,” said Calonge. “So we tell the suppliers that our recommendation is to continue to follow the recommendation as it was in place in January 2025.”
In a statement on his website, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly recommended that the speakers will be vaccinated against Covid. “ACOG continues to recommend that all pregnant and lactating people receive a COVVI-19 or” booster “vaccine updated.
Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in August that all children from 6 to 23 months old be vaccinated against Covid, as well as older children in certain risk groups.
For the moment, Colorado follows the same immunization recommendations it used last year.
The most recent meeting of the AIPI, on September 18 and 19, was chaotic, the members admitting that they did not understand what they voted and even chose to rebuild on access to the pediatric MMRV vaccine. The next APIP meeting is expected to take place on October 22 and 23 and may result in additional changes in the vaccine recommendations.
Doctors and vaccine scientists expressed the alarm in the face of the national consensus on vaccines.
“There will now be much more confusion and distrust of vaccines among the public,” said Allison Kempe, professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who sat at the ACIP from 2013 to 2018.
However, she said that she was happy that Colorado launches with her own recommendations.
This article comes from a partnership that includes CPR News, NPR and KFF Health News.
