Maine, Northeastern States Formally Announce Northeast Public Health Collaborative

Regional partnership of public well being businesses and leaders will share experience, enhance coordination, and promote and defend evidence-based public well being

Several Northeastern states — together with Maine — and America’s largest metropolis have been collaborating since early 2025 and today formally announced the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, stated Governor Janet Mills.

The Collaborative is a voluntary, regional coalition of public well being businesses and leaders from seven states and New York City, introduced collectively to share experience, enhance coordination, improve capability, strengthen regional readiness, and promote and defend evidence-based public well being.

The Collaborative’s shared goal is to work collectively in new methods — optimizing the usage of shared sources, innovating and reimagining core providers — to make sure belief in public well being, reply to public well being threats, advance group well being, and strengthen confidence in vaccines and science-based medication. The group’s shared purpose is to guard the well being, security, and well-being of all residents by offering info based mostly on science, knowledge, and proof, whereas working to make sure equitable entry to vaccines, drugs and providers.

“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,” stated Governor Mills.

“The people of Maine are known for their resilience, neighborly support, and a collaborative approach to solving community challenges. This spirit is evident in the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which serves as an incubator for solutions in public health. By working together, we can build a more adaptable, sustainable, and resilient public health framework for the region,” stated Maine CDC Director, Dr. Puthiery Va.

The regional partnership, which was informally established a number of months in the past, held its first in-person assembly in Rhode Island in August. The Collaborative has fashioned interjurisdictional working teams to establish alternatives for collaboration and shared planning throughout a number of public well being disciplines together with public well being emergency preparedness and response, vaccine suggestions and buying, knowledge assortment and evaluation, infectious illness, epidemiology, and laboratory capability and providers.

Maine is actively concerned within the course and governance of the Collaborative and contributes to working teams on immunization and public well being preparedness and response. Members of the Collaborative have labored collectively on science-based steering for well being care personnel (HCP) advising on precautions well being care employees ought to take to guard themselves and sufferers throughout respiratory virus season. Other examples of collaborative efforts embody sharing info on public well being emergency preparedness, exploring workforce pipeline actions given the understaffing in public well being, and coordinating state lab associated actions and providers.

While the Collaborative members share widespread public well being objectives and goals, every state retains independence to undertake initiatives that align with their populations, legal guidelines, goals, and regulatory necessities.

Last week, Governor Mills introduced that, at her course, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) has issued a standing order (PDF) authorizing certified well being care professionals — together with pharmacists — to manage the 2025- 2026 COVID-19 vaccine. The standing order serves as a prescription for all Maine individuals, permitting them to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine at pharmacies, clinics, and well being care workplaces throughout the state.

The Mills Administration’s actions come because the Trump Administration, together with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., limit entry to vaccines and undermine the nation’s public well being infrastructure.