Maine AG warns providers against vaccinating ineligible individuals

Maine’s attorney general is warning COVID-19 vaccine providers in the state not to provide shots to ineligible people.

Attorney General Aaron M. Frey said in a statement issued Tuesday night that his office will consider legal and administrative action against health care providers who provide shots to those who don’t meet the state’s eligibility criteria.

The warning came after reports that some health care providers have given vaccine shots to wealthy donors, some of the providers’ employees and to out-of-state contractors, in violation of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s rules on who is eligible for vaccinations.

In Maine, the vaccine is currently available for patient-facing health care workers and those needed to preserve health care services, along with residents and staff of long-term care facilities, public-facing public safety personnel, COVID-19 response personnel and Mainers age 70 and older. In general, the CDC has said, those 70 and older should be first in line because of the limited supply of shots.

Frey said he wants to “stop behavior which contradicts the rules put in place by the CDC” and he noted that the shots are funded by the public and provided at no charge for health care providers to administer.

“Whether it is giving vaccine doses to wealthy donors who cut the line ahead of others who might need it more or allowing out of state union-busters to receive doses which should have gone to Mainers, practices which go against the protocols developed carefully by the experts at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention undermine the public’s trust and hinder our response to the pandemic,” he said.

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