Minnesota is joining a growing list of Democratic-leaning states standing up for vaccines and access to them in the face of an emerging anti-vaccine ideology in the federal government under prominent anti-vaxxer and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order Monday directing the Minnesota Department of Health and the Department of Commerce to figure out how to make sure Minnesotans can continue receiving vaccines amid quickly changing federal recommendations that have led to the resignations of prominent government scientists, including Demetre C. Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In a fiery resignation letter, Daskalakis wrote that “The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.”
Minnesota joins Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania, which have issued similar orders after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would be limiting the COVID-19 vaccine to people over 65 or with an underlying health condition.
The Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington have formed a health alliance to coordinate vaccine recommendations independent of federal decisions, and states in the northeast are considering following suit.
The Massachusetts commissioners of insurance and public health announced last week that Massachusetts health insurers must cover vaccines recommended by the state regardless of federal policy.
Walz’s order is slightly less aggressive, setting deadlines for the health and commerce departments to take care of legalities and logistics. Minnesotans can expect a standing order from the health department’s medical director on COVID-19 vaccine access within the next two weeks. By Oct. 6, the departments will need to convene health insurers and providers to come up with a plan to address barriers to vaccine access.
According to a press release announcing the order, pharmacists in Minnesota can administer COVID-19 vaccines regardless of recommendations from the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which was overhauled and whose members were replaced largely with vaccine skeptics by Kennedy in June.
But it’s unclear whether insurers will continue to cover the costs of vaccines not recommended by ACIP, especially since Minnesota law defines which immunizations insurers must provide under preventive care based on the advisory committee’s recommendations. Already, some Minnesotans have had trouble getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine to be covered by their insurance, the Star Tribune reported.
The order also directs MDH to monitor whether similar measures will need to be taken for other vaccines.
On Sept. 18 and 19, in addition to the COVID-19 vaccine, ACIP will discuss and possibly vote on recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine; measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine; and respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.
The blue states’ vaccine advocacy stands in contrast to states such as Florida, which is planning to roll back longstanding school vaccine mandates for some illnesses including chickenpox and hepatitis B.
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