Maine Rejects Trump Administration’s New Childhood Vaccine Recommendations, Keeps State Schedule Unchanged

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine health officials say the state will not alter its childhood vaccination guidance following a new executive order from President Donald Trump that substantially changes federal recommendations and places a greater emphasis on parental choice.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that it will continue following childhood vaccine recommendations issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics rather than adopting the Trump administration’s newly announced “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations.”

“Maine will continue to follow the science and the facts, and our approach to vaccines remains unchanged by yesterday’s executive order,” Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement released by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Mills accused Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of “playing politics with the lives of our nation’s children.”

https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/news/maine-cdc-childhood-vaccine-guidance-remains-unchanged-following-federal-action-2026-08-11

The disagreement places Maine squarely in the middle of a growing national debate over childhood vaccine requirements, parental rights and how much authority Washington should exercise over vaccination policy traditionally controlled by the states.

What Trump’s Order Does

Trump signed the executive order on Aug. 10, declaring a new federal policy that divides childhood vaccines into three categories and recommends universal immunization against 11 diseases, down from the 18 diseases included in the federal schedule in 2024.

Those universally recommended immunizations cover measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus and varicella. Other vaccines, including those for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza and COVID-19, are placed into high-risk or shared clinical decision-making categories under the new framework.

The White House said the policy is intended to bring the United States more closely in line with vaccine practices in other developed countries and give parents and doctors greater flexibility over which vaccines children receive and when they receive them. The administration says its earlier review found that the United States recommends more childhood vaccine doses than peer nations.

Perhaps the most significant change involves the longstanding combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Trump’s order states that the MMR vaccine should eventually be administered as three separate single-disease shots once those products become available in the United States. It also calls for childhood immunizations to be administered during separate medical visits “to the maximum extent feasible.”

That provision would not take effect immediately because separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not currently licensed and commercially available in the United States. Reuters reported that vaccine manufacturers and public-health experts say developing individual versions could take years.

The White House argues that the approach gives parents greater control over the timing and frequency of childhood vaccinations.

Maine Says No Change

Maine CDC Director Dr. Puthiery Va said the state’s existing recommendations and requirements will remain in place.

“Vaccines are our most effective defense against vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Va said, adding that eligible children can continue receiving vaccines at no cost through Maine’s Immunization Program.

The Maine CDC said it will instead continue relying on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which maintains that vaccine schedules should be based on when children are most vulnerable to particular diseases and when their immune systems are most likely to respond effectively.

Several Maine medical organizations have joined the state in opposing the federal changes.

The Maine Medical Association, Maine Academy of Family Physicians, Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Maine Academy of Physician Associates, Maine Nurse Practitioner Association, Maine Osteopathic Association and Maine Public Health Association have all raised concerns about the new federal policy.

Maine Medical Association President Dr. James Jarvis argued that separating vaccines into multiple appointments could dramatically increase the number of doctor’s visits families need to complete recommended childhood vaccinations.

Jarvis said the result could be children going longer without full protection against preventable diseases.

The controversy comes as the United States is experiencing its highest level of measles cases in decades, adding urgency to a broader debate over vaccine hesitancy and childhood immunization rates.

Maine’s Vaccine Law Already Sparked a Major Political Fight

The clash between Augusta and Washington also revives a bitter political battle Maine voters settled six years ago.

In 2019, Mills signed LD 798, which eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions from Maine’s school immunization requirements while maintaining medical exemptions.

Opponents gathered enough signatures to force a statewide People’s Veto referendum in March 2020.

Question 1 asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal the law and restore religious and philosophical exemptions.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected the repeal. About 72.8 percent voted to keep the law, while 27.2 percent voted to overturn it. The new requirements took effect in 2021.

The fight crossed party lines but had a clear partisan divide in Augusta. According to records compiled by Ballotpedia, 84 percent of Democratic lawmakers supported the 2019 legislation eliminating the exemptions, while 91 percent of Republican lawmakers opposed it.

Maine’s existing school and child-care immunization requirements remain unchanged by Trump’s executive order, according to Maine DHHS.

Federal Legal Fight Could Be Coming

Trump’s order does more than recommend a different vaccine schedule.

It also directs the U.S. attorney general to take appropriate action supporting legal challenges against state vaccination laws that could conflict with federal protections involving parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations or equal protection.

That provision could eventually put Maine’s prohibition on religious vaccine exemptions under federal scrutiny.

The order does not itself repeal Maine law or automatically force the state to change its school immunization requirements. States have traditionally exercised substantial authority over school vaccination mandates, and Trump’s order specifically advises states to review their laws rather than directly rewriting them.

But the administration has now opened the door to federal litigation challenging some state requirements.

Maine Public reported that the Justice Department provision is expected to encompass states such as Maine that do not provide philosophical exemptions, although the precise scope of any eventual federal lawsuit remains unclear.

For now, Maine parents will see no immediate change.

Children attending Maine schools and child-care facilities remain subject to the state’s existing immunization requirements, while Maine CDC will continue recommending the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule instead of Trump’s new federal framework.

What happens next may move beyond medicine and into the courts, as the Trump administration’s push for greater parental choice collides with Maine’s voter-approved vaccination law.