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Donald J. Brooks is an infectious disease epidemiologist and a native of Clifton. He served as the lead for COVID-19 vaccination data and analytics at the World Health Organization from 2022 to 2025 and is currently a doctoral researcher at the Yale School of Public Health.
Childhood immunization is essential, but in Maine the conversation about vaccination has to be broader. We are the oldest state in the nation. In 2025, 23.5% of Maine’s population was age 65 or older. In a state like ours, vaccines are not only important for protecting children from preventable illness, but also for protecting adults and older adults from infections that can erode health, independence and well-being.
This makes the unstable and increasingly politicized vaccine policymaking at the federal level especially consequential for Maine, where vaccine policy shapes not only childhood protection, but also the health of a large older population.
Adults, and especially older adults, have important vaccine needs of their own. Immune function changes with age, and infections such as influenza, COVID-19, RSV, pneumococcal disease, and shingles can carry serious consequences later in life. Anyone who has watched an older relative lose ground after pneumonia, or struggle to recover after flu or COVID-19, understands how harmful these infections can be. The damage often extends beyond the infection itself, into hospitalization, diminished strength, worsening chronic disease, and lasting loss of independence.The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for older adults responds to exactly those risks. Pregnancy and chronic or immunocompromising conditions also bring vaccine needs of their own.
This broader set of vaccine needs is why LD 2071 and LD 2146, two bills now moving through the legislative process, are important for Maine. Maine needs the ability to preserve practical access to vaccines on evidence-based terms that respond to the state’s demographic realities and public health priorities. These bills help do that in complementary ways, by reducing Maine’s dependence on shifting federal vaccine guidance and by strengthening the practical pathways through which people get vaccinated.
Recent federal shifts have shown how quickly vaccine access can become vulnerable to political change rather than medical evidence. For example, in May 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that COVID-19 vaccines had been removed from the CDC schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. FDA approval nevertheless remained in place for these and other groups, and later CDC guidance still allowed COVID-19 vaccination based on individual decision-making. Recommendation politics like these can determine what remains practically available, covered, and easy to obtain.
In Maine, this matters not only for families with children, but also for older adults, pregnant people, and others for whom vaccination remains an important part of protecting health and independence. Maine should not leave the ability to get vaccinated to the mercy of shifting federal recommendation politics when a vaccine remains FDA-approved and its use strongly supported by evidence.
LD 2146 would strengthen Maine’s ability to look to evidence-based state and regional recommendations when federal guidance becomes less reliable, while LD 2071 would help ensure that medically supported vaccination remains covered by insurance without cost-sharing. Massachusetts and New York have also taken similar state-level steps to protect vaccine access.
Whether people can get vaccinated in practice matters just as much as what is recommended on paper. In Maine, routine primary care is not always where adult vaccination happens, especially in rural communities where distance, workforce shortages, and strained primary care can mean that a recommended vaccine is delayed or missed altogether. For many Mainers, the difference between intending to get vaccinated and actually doing it comes down to whether vaccination is possible at a convenient location and time, and whether the cost is manageable. In this context, pharmacy access becomes especially important. LD 2071 strengthens this access by allowing pharmacists to prescribe, dispense, and administer a broader set of vaccines.
LD 2071 and LD 2146 will not settle every argument about vaccines or public health. What they would do is more practical. They would help preserve access to vaccines grounded in evidence, better support how people actually get vaccinated, and meet the realities of an aging state where both childhood and adult vaccination must be taken seriously. Together, these bills should move forward and become law.