Federal committee to deliberate Covid vaccines this week

By John Epstein

Like other pharmacies, Walgreens in Blue Hill has seen customers upset that they can’t get a Covid booster until a federal committee deliberates. Photo by John Epstein.

At a September 4, 2025 hearing in Washington, D.C., Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told U.S. senators that “anyone can get a Covid-19 vaccine for the fall.”  But in the meantime, getting one in and around the Blue Hill Peninsula and throughout Maine is posing challenges.

In August, the Food and Drug Administration approved several vaccines for use as boosters to prevent infection from new covid variants. But now when customers walk up to the pharmacy counter at Blue Hill’s Walgreens – even those who are over 65 or have pre-existing conditions – they are told they must await a decision to approve vaccine protocols by a federal body known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that’s affiliated with the Center for Disease Control. ACIP is scheduled to meet and deliberate on September 18.

“A lot of people have been showing up for vaccines and they are getting pissed off about having to wait,” said David Purvis, a pharmacy health technician at the Blue Hill Walgreen’s.

If people have a primary care physician, there’s a work around.

“I can write a prescription for those who need vaccines,” said Michael Murnik, MD at Northern Light’s Primary Care facility in Blue Hill.

“I got a prescription and I’m getting my shot before ACIP meets,” said Abbie McMillan, a senior, who lives on Cape Rosier.  She said she’s concerned because HHS Secretary Kennedy fired the 17 members of ACIP in June and replaced them with 12 new members, some of whom are opponents of mRNA vaccines. Many of the most widely used Covid booster shots are mRNA vaccines, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna.

The mRNA process is different from traditional vaccines.

“To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, mRNA vaccines use mRNA created in a laboratory to teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. This immune response, which produces antibodies, is what helps protect us from getting sick from that germ in the future,” according to the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Maine is part of a consortium of 18 states and the District of Columbia that under their respective laws rely on a recommendation from ACIP before approving widespread distribution of vaccines without prescription. Without federal ACIP approval, there’s a question as to whether insurance companies would be required to pay for vaccination boosters for those who are not in the population category approved by ACIP to get the shots.

Pharmacies and insurance companies alike are awaiting ACIP’s recommendations for Covid-19 booster distribution. Limitations on vaccine distribution could impact those reimbursement obligations, elected officials say.

“There’s an effort in the legislature to change the Maine law in light of what’s happened with ACIP,” said Sam Webster, legislative aide to Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski, in a telephone interview. “But right now there’s confusion in the pharmacy community – big chains are struggling to react.”