The Maryland Department of Health released its own vaccination recommendations in lieu of the federal standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All adults should get their COVID-19 vaccination this fall, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Additionally, all children between six months and two years old should get their shot and children two years to eighteen years old who are at risk.
The standards are stricter than what the CDC recommended and follow the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists.
The biggest change between MDH’s recommendations and the CDC’s lies with the COVID vaccination.
MDH suggests all adults get the vaccine this coming season, while the CDC only recommends the vaccine for at-risk adults.
MDH and CDC agree that older people over 65 should get the vaccine, however, MDH gives more emphasis on people 50 and older.
MDH also recommends that all infants under eight months get the RSV vaccine and that pregnant people get the shot as well.
RSV shots should be given to children 8-19 months with risk factors and all people over 75. Additionally, people 50-74 who are at-risk should get the shot.
Finally, MDH recommends the flu shot for all people older than six months. Adults who are older than 50 should get a higher dose flu vaccine.
All of this comes as Maryland is joining eight other states in building a public health coalition to issue vaccine recommendations and coordinate efforts.
The Northeast Public Health Collaborative will act as a bulwark against what they perceive as a loosening of public health standards on a federal level that are endangering citizens.
Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine are all banding together much like four states in the West — Oregon, Washington, California and Hawaii — are working together to make their own public health guidelines.
The coalition comes as the Trump administration is implementing its Make America Healthy Again policy, which has made cuts to Department of Health and Human Services staff and Congress voted to shrink who is eligible for Medicaid.
In May, the Trump administration announced it would stop routinely approving COVID vaccines for healthy people under 65, a move that flies in the face of recommendations from the nation’s top professional medical societies.
Additionally, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently voted against recommending a combined measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine for children under four.
