Illinois public health officials now have more authority to set the state’s own vaccine guidelines under a law signed Tuesday by Gov. JB Pritzker that aims to “fill the void” left by vaccine skeptics in President Donald Trump’s administration.
As federal officials under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tighten regulations against the recommendations of most experts, Illinois’ new legislation empowers an independent state committee “to safeguard vaccine access and maintain science-based recommendations,” Pritzker said during a West Loop news conference.
“While RFK Jr. and his QAnon-inspired colleagues spreading conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation about vaccines are running around Washington, Illinois is stepping up to protect the health of our people,” Pritzker said. “And while some other states are denying proven science to serve the MAGA Republican political agenda, Illinois is listening to the experts and making lifesaving care more accessible.”
The legislation, which state lawmakers sent to Pritzker’s desk at the end of the fall veto session, calls for Illinois to issue its own vaccine guidelines through experts at the newly formed Illinois Immunization Advisory Committee, which was established under an executive order from Pritzker in September. Such recommendations have typically come straight from the federal government.
The law also requires state-regulated health insurance plans to cover vaccines based on state recommendations, even if they go beyond federal recommendations. And it lowers the minimum age from 7 to 3 for children to receive some vaccines at pharmacies, including flu and COVID-19 shots.
“This change will allow more families to conveniently protect their young ones,” Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said.
The state committee will ensure “that leading experts in our state continue to inform and guide our vaccine policies,” Vohra said. Recommendations from the IDPH director also can be overridden with a two-thirds committee vote.
The new law was signed just days before the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta to discuss the vaccine schedule for children and the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, which has long been a target of those who oppose immunizations. The vaccine in newborns helps prevent chronic liver disease.
The federal committee is expected to push for delaying when children get the hepatitis B vaccine. But experts say the vaccine is safe and has been recommended for newborns for more than three decades.
The meeting could result in parents having to navigate a patchwork of recommendations for immunizations, with many medical organizations and states now issuing their own guidelines in contrast to Kennedy’s CDC.
“We are doing this because the Trump administration has upended the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the federal body that has long provided states with rigorous, evidence-driven vaccine schedules,” Pritzker said. “So Illinois is stepping up to fill the void.”
Republicans in the Illinois General Assembly opposed the measure. During House floor debate, state Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, called it “a Trump derangement syndrome bill.”
“We are pro-vaccination, but this bill makes sure that we can’t vote for it because we have a bill that’s signaling to their [Democratic] base how much they’re battling the ‘evil’ Trump administration,” said Hauter, a physician.
Most of the law takes effect immediately; insurance changes go into effect Jan. 1.