For immediate release
September 8, 2025
Disability Rights Groups Urge Governor to Join Neighboring States in Ensuring Connecticut Adopts Broader Guidelines Permitting COVID Vaccinations, Following Action by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Narrowing Access
Disability Rights Connecticut and Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities Raise Concerns, Urge CT to Follow NY and MA Lead on Covid Vaccination Access, Insurance Coverage
Disability Rights Connecticut (DRCT) and the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities (CTCDD) are urging Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD of the Department of Public Health to ensure that Connecticut adopts guidelines regarding the availability of Covid shots that would extend beyond the new, narrow guidelines recently adopted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emphasizing that “it also is essential that the clear official state guidelines be broadly publicized.”
The two organizations, which represent or serve individuals with a range of disabilities throughout the state, in a letter to Governor Lamont on Friday, September 5, wrote to express “concern for the impact of the recent restrictive recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” and called on the Governor and Commissioner Juthani “to adopt all of the responses adopted by [Massachusetts] Governor [Maura] Healey and without delay, given the confusion that has been generated by the recent chaos at CDC, and the desire of many CT residents to begin getting their booster shots.” Healey had announced Massachusetts’ actions on Thursday.
Noting that “Another significant problem generated by the restrictive CDC guidelines is insurance coverage,” DRCT and CTCDD urged Connecticut to “adopt and publicize a broader standard,” and require “all insurance plans to continue to cover vaccinations outside of the CDC guidelines.”
Also on Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order expanding public access to Covid vaccinations in that state. DRCT and CTCDD continue to seek action in Connecticut without delay, as outlined in Friday’s letter to Governor Lamont.
Tobey Partch-Davies, Executive Director of DRCT, commented that “Many people with disabilities have underlying health conditions making viruses including COVID, influenza, chicken pox, and others a serious cause for concern over the possibility of serious illness or possible death. Let us not return to 2020 when so many individuals and families suffered from social isolation and loneliness to mitigate their health risk. People with disabilities have a right to live, work, and recreate in the community. They must have access to scientifically-proven vaccines, such as the COVID shots, to protect their health so they may enjoy their freedoms.”
Walter Glomb, Executive Director of the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities, recalls that "In 2021, during the pandemic, we needed to operate special clinics to ensure that people with developmental disabilities received life-saving vaccines for COVID-19. Since then, the vaccine has become widely available through local community pharmacies which know and accommodate their customers, many of whom may have developmental disabilities. Let's not now allow restrictions on access to the vaccine in our communities."
The DRCT-CTCDD letter also urges continuation of collaborative efforts with other Northeast states to ensure the “broader recommendations are adopted in at least in all of these states.” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced on Thursday that her state has “adopted statewide standards going beyond CDC recommendations, and thus authorizing all providers, including pharmacies, to administer Covid shots beyond” the new and narrow CDC recommendations, and that discussions with neighboring states were underway.
The letter to Governor Lamont points out that state residents who don’t have one of the conditions listed under the new federal guidelines, “including those with disabilities, may also be interested in receiving the latest Covid boosters. While doctors and other independent prescribers are not bound by the CDC guidelines and are free to provide the vaccine off-label to such individuals, they may also have concerns with doing this absent any official pronouncement from the state.”
The letter on behalf of the two organizations was signed by Tobey Partch-Davies, Executive Director of DRCT, Sheldon Toubman, Litigation Attorney with DRCT, and Walter Glomb, Executive Director of CTCDD. Both organizations offered to assist state officials in publicizing broader guidelines that Connecticut would adopt to address the issues raised.
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Click here for a PDF copy of the Press Release
Click here for a PDF copy of the correspondence
Media contact:
Sheldon Toubman, sheldon.toubman@disrightsct.org, 475-345-3169
About Disability Rights Connecticut
Disability Rights Connecticut’s mission is to advocate, educate, investigate, and pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies to advance and protect the civil rights of individuals with disabilities to participate equally and fully in all facets of community life in Connecticut. Disability Rights Connecticut provides legal advocacy and rights protection to people of all ages with disabilities. DRCT focuses its legal and other advocacy on a wide range of disability justice issues for Connecticut residents with disabilities. DRCT’s services include advocating the rights of individuals with disabilities on issues including abuse, neglect, discrimination, community integration, forensic mental health, voting, and other rights protection issues. DRCT replaced the Office of Protection & Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, which was abolished by Connecticut Law as of June 30, 2017, and is now Connecticut’s federally mandated “Protection and Advocacy System”.
About Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities
In 1971, Governor Meskill created the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities and enabled Connecticut to receive federal funding for implementing a plan to meet the needs for services to persons with developmental disabilities. The federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (The DD Act) authorized State Councils on Developmental Disabilities to engage in advocacy, capacity building, and systemic change activities that contribute to a comprehensive, coordinated, and self-determined system of individualized services and supports that is centered on and directed by individuals with developmental disabilities and their families.
