Maine and six other Northeast states formally announced Thursday a collaboration to “promote and protect evidence-based public health” with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. making sharp changes at the federal level.

The Northeast Public Health Collaborative includes Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York state and New York City. It comes after California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii formed a similar alliance earlier this month that announced joint vaccine recommendations for the flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

The partnerships are an example of the political fractures on vaccines and other health policy issues since the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats who control the states have been citing a need t

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