Alyce Ornella was told she couldn’t schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment this week for her 10-year-old son, even though he has a kidney disease she believes should make him eligible despite the federal government’s new, more restrictive guidelines.

The Bath mother’s experience is just one example of the muddled landscape for the vaccine heading into the fall, when people typically get the updated COVID-19 shot.

To counter the Trump administration’s restrictions on the vaccine, states are starting to form coalitions — including a group of eight northeastern states that Maine is a part of — to try to keep the COVID-19 vaccine accessible. But exactly how that will work and whether it will be successful in making the shot more available is unclear.

The new Food and Drug Administration rules, released on Aug. 27, approve the vaccine only for those 65 and older and those with high-risk conditions, including diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and mental health issues. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet recommended the COVID-19 vaccine — a crucial step in the process to ensure broad access.

Maine has joined seven other states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont — to coordinate measures to make the COVID-19 shot widely available in the Northeast. It remains to be seen what actions can be taken, but they could include broader eligibility than the federal rules and mandates that insurers cover the vaccines.

Some states in the coalition, like Massachusetts and New York, have issued executive orders to try to circumvent federal rules on COVID-19 vaccines.

Whether Maine will follow suit is unclear.

Ben Goodman, a spokesman for Maine Gov. Janet Mills, said the “governor is appalled by the turmoil and politicization of our federal health agencies and their sharp movement away from science.”

Goodman said the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is “assessing changes by the FDA to COVID-19 vaccine eligibility” and is also “discussing these factors with other Northeast states and evaluating the state’s authority under (state law).”

Goodman said the goal is to “prevent any medically unnecessary restriction of vaccines.”

Ornella said her son, Sam, has chronic kidney disease and should meet the criteria to get the vaccine under the new eligibility guidelines spelled out by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. But she said her pediatrician and a kidney specialist wouldn’t schedule one, citing the new rules released by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“It’s so frustrating to have this drama and uncertainty with the vaccine,” said Ornella, explaining that Sam’s disease means the family takes every measure to prevent him from getting sick. That helps keep his kidneys from deteriorating, she said.

Once the vaccine became available in 2021, Ornella said, “we’ve never had a problem getting it for him, until this year.”

‘CREATED A LOT OF CHAOS’

The U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to meet this month to discuss whether to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine.

The committee is now packed with people appointed by Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist prior to becoming HHS secretary. Kennedy has come under fire from lawmakers, including at a contentious Senate committee meeting on Thursday, for spreading false information about vaccines.

Maine law requires vaccines to be both FDA-approved and recommended by the U.S. CDC for pharmacists to administer them without a prescription, said Amelia Arnold, legislative liaison for the Maine Pharmacy Association.

“The traditional way people are used to getting their COVID shots, of going into the pharmacy and leaving with a COVID shot, is not able to happen right now, because without that CDC recommendation, it defaults that it is a prescription-only item,” Arnold said.

Arnold said it is the first time the CDC has not recommended the updated COVID-19 vaccine by this time of year and that advocates are “very anxiously waiting” for more guidance from the federal government.

COVID-19 is not as dangerous as it was during the first two years of the pandemic, because the virus has become less deadly and most people now have a combination of natural immunity and immunity from being vaccinated, public health experts say. But it’s still a deadly disease, and medical experts say everyone should have access to the vaccine, which is typically updated every year to better fight circulating strains of the coronavirus.

Sixty-eight people have died of COVID-19 and 419 have been hospitalized in 2025, through Sept. 1, according to Maine CDC data. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, 3,645 people in Maine have died from COVID-19.

Dr. Laura Blaisdell, a Portland pediatrician, said she doesn’t yet have a COVID-19 vaccine supply and also “doesn’t have any answers right now” for people who want to get the shot.

“The chaos that has been created in changing the COVID guidelines has created a lot of chaos for our parents,” Blaisdell said.

If doctors can’t administer the vaccine this fall without a prescription, it would be an “exceedingly inefficient hoop,” Blaisdell said, adding “we will do whatever it takes” to “provide preventative interventions.”

REGIONAL COALITIONS FORM

Deborah Deatrick, an independent public health consultant from Maine, believes the regional groups, like the one forming in the Northeast and a new coalition California, Oregon and Washington are forming on the West Coast, are necessary. But Deatrick said despite best efforts by some states, without federal backing, fewer people will end up getting vaccinated.

“It sows confusion in the mind of the public,” Deatrick said. “When there’s confusion, people just wait.”

Caitlin Gilmet, director of Maine Families for Vaccines, said it’s frustrating states have to take these initiatives to preserve a “common sense” protection.

“It’s clear that vaccine access is under attack,” Gilmet said.

Matt Wellington, associate director for the Maine Public Health Association, said the new restrictions on the COVID-19 vaccine are “devastating and damaging to public health.”

“It’s a sad state of affairs that our states even have to consider doing these regional coalitions,” Wellington said. “There’s a reason vaccine policy is done at the federal level.”

Many questions remain about the regional coalitions, such as whether insurance companies will cover the vaccines in states that have different guidelines for the COVID-19 shot than the federal government. If insurance won’t cover the vaccine for some people, the out-of-pocket costs could be hundreds of dollars for each shot given, according to the U.S. CDC.

Bob Carey, superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance, said the state is exploring the insurance ramifications of the regional coalition, but he doesn’t have the answers yet. Healey, the Massachusetts governor, is attempting to mandate that insurers cover the vaccine.

Arnold, of the pharmacy association, said it’s possible the vaccine will become more available later this year, but no one knows.

“There is a sense of urgency in that pharmacies have the vaccine, patients want the vaccine, and there’s this obstacle to patients getting the vaccine at their local pharmacy,” Arnold said.

Ornella, the mom from Bath , said she’s seen public statements from Kennedy that “everyone who wants the vaccine can get the vaccine.”

“That hasn’t been the case for me. I’ve been trying to book an appointment and I’ve been told ‘no,'” Ornella said. “Maybe I’ll get one later for my son, or maybe not. No one seems to know.”