Connecticut Senate passes bill preserving state's vaccine standards
Connecticut’s legislature has fully passed a bill that preserves the state’s vaccine standards.
State Sen. Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) led the bill’s passage as Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee.
He said the bill is “simply making sure Connecticut knows where it stands” on vaccinations in the midst of the federal government’s “whiplash” recent decision-making.
“We are not forcing anything here. We’re expanding options to make sure the public can access the care they desire,” Anwar said following the bill’s passage.
“This legislation ensures that our state immunization standards are grounded in the consensus professional judgment of the nation’s leading medical and public health practitioners, not the ideological agenda of the Trump regime,” said State Sen. Pres. Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and State Sen. Maj. Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk).
The bill states that vaccine access is often tied to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Connecticut’s standard will also include recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
The standard will allow Connecticut to retain its current vaccination standards and increase scrutiny of the CDC’s ACIP’s behaviors and practices.
State lawmakers cited something that happened in June 2025 when HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 sitting members of the ACIP and replaced them with new members. The move was criticized as RFK Jr. replaced several with new members who have direct ties to vaccine skepticism.
Since the upheaval, the ACIP has already tried to remove vaccines from standard schedules.
Connecticut’s bill will also create a Vaccines for Adults program, which will provide free vaccines to uninsured and underinsured people over 19 years old through free clinics, municipal health departments, and other eligible providers.
You can read more about the bill here.
The bill now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for a final signature.
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