Seven States, New York City Partner on Northeast Public Health Collaborative
BOSTON — Several Northeastern states, including Massachusetts, and America’s largest city have been collaborating since early 2025 and this week formally announced the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, a voluntary regional coalition of public health agencies and leaders, brought together to share expertise, improve coordination, enhance capacity, strengthen regional readiness, and promote and protect evidence-based public health.
The voluntary coalition includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, as well as New York City. The group’s shared goal is to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all residents by providing information based on science, data, and evidence, while working to ensure equitable access to vaccines, medications, and services.
The collaborative has formed interjurisdictional working groups to identify opportunities for collaboration and shared planning across multiple public health disciplines, including public health emergency preparedness and response, vaccine recommendations and purchasing, data collection and analysis, infectious disease, epidemiology, and laboratory capacity and services.
Members of the collaborative worked together on science-based guidance for healthcare personnel (HCP) advising on precautions healthcare workers should take to protect themselves and patients during respiratory virus season. Other examples of collaborative efforts include sharing information on public health emergency preparedness related to three FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) World Cup host cities within the collaborative, exploring workforce pipeline activities given the understaffing in public health, and coordinating state lab related activities and services.
“When our states speak in concert, our voice carries farther, and our impact deepens,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, Massachusetts commissioner of Public Health. “Those who work in public health are entrusted with a profound responsibility — a promise — to protect the health and safety of those in our states, to advance equity, and to ground every decision in data and evidence. Strong public health must stand high above ideology. Our region understands this, and we are moving forward, resolute, united, and guided by science.”
While the Northeast Public Health Collaborative members share common public health goals and objectives, they recognize that each state and city is independent with its own diverse populations and unique sets of laws, regulations, and histories. Members may choose to participate in or adapt those specific initiatives consistent with their particular needs, values, objectives, and statutory or regulatory requirements.