Governor Janet T. Mills (D) Announced New Collaborative This Afternoon.
Seven states and New York City have formed a public health Collaborative which has been in the works since early 2025 announced Governor Janet T. Mills (D-ME) this afternoon. The Northeast Public Health collaborative is a voluntary, regional coalition of public health agencies and leaders from across seven states and New York City brought together to share expertise, improve coordination, enhance capacity strengthen regional readiness and promote and protect evidence-based public health.
The seven states includig Maine are: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
“The collaborative’s shared purpose is to work together in new ways — optimizing the use of shared resources, innovating and reimagining core services — to ensure trust in public health, respond to public health threats, advance community health and strengthen confidence in vaccines and science-based medicine. The group’s shared goal is to to protect the health, safety and well-being of all residents by providing information based on science, data and evidence, while working to ensure equitable access to vaccines, medications and services.
“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,” said Governor Mills.
The regional partnership, informally established several months ago, held its first in-person meeting in Rhode Island in August. The Collaborative has formed interjurisdictional workig groups to identify opportunities for collaboration and shared planning across multiple public health disciplines, including public health emergency preparedness and response, vaccine recommedations and purchasing daa collection and analysis, infectious disease epidemiology, and laboratory capacity and services.
The Mills’ Administration actions come as the Trump Administration, including Health & Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. restricts access to vaccines and undermines the nation’s public health infrastructure according to the press release received this afternoon from Governor Mills office in August.
By the way, Secretary Kennedy’s newly appointed panel is expected to vote any moment now on its vaccine recommendations. “It should not be forgotten that Senator Susan Collins (R-E) voted to support the appointment of Secretary Kennedy to this post, despite his well-known record as an anti-vaxer,” reminded this blogger.
Maine is actively involved in the direction and governance of the Collaborative and contributes to working groups on immunization and public health prepardness and response.